PanARMENIAN.Net

Los Angeles Times: State Department Long Avoided Word
“Genocide” out of Deference to Turkey

23.03.2006 01:30 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ It is time to stop tiptoeing around
the Genocide issue and to accept settled history.
Genocide, according to accepted U.N. definition, means
“the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a
national, ethnical, racial or religious group.”
Armenia is not even a borderline case, says an article
titled It Was Genocide in The Los Angeles Times.
Punishing an ambassador for speaking honestly about a
90-year-old crime befits a cynical, double-dealing
monarchy, not the leader of the free world. The
article author touches upon possible recall of US
Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, `accusing’ him for
recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in
1915-1923 during a meeting with the Armenian community
at Berkley University, California.

«Punishing an ambassador for speaking honestly about a
90-year-old crime befits a cynical, double-dealing
monarchy, not the leader of the free world. One day,
the country that was founded as a direct repudiation
of its Ottoman past will face its history squarely, as
part of a long-overdue maturing process. Some day
before then, we hope, the State Department will too.
Yet the State Department has long avoided the word
“genocide,” not out of any dispute over history but
out of deference to Turkey, whose membership in NATO
and location between Europe and Asia make it a
strategic ally,’ The Los Angeles Times writes.