OBAMA PLEDGES RECOGNITION OF ARMENIAN ‘GENOCIDE’
Today’s Zaman
Jan 22 2008
Turkey
US Presidential candidate Barack Obama has pledged to officially
recognize the controversial World War I-era killings of Anatolian
Armenians as genocide if he becomes president, while also urging
US lawmakers to adopt a pending resolution for recognition of the
allegations on the controversial issue.
A written statement penned by Obama and sent to an influential Armenian
diaspora organization was made public by the group on Monday. While
announcing Obama’s statement, the Washington based-Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) expressed pleasure over the statement,
titled "The Importance of US-Armenia Relations" and dated Jan. 19.
Obama wrote that he had a "firmly held conviction that the Armenian
Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view,
but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body
of historical evidence."
"The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats
to distort historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator,
I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and
as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide," Obama said in
the statement, which has also been aired on his campaign Web site
at
"I will promote Armenian security by seeking an end to the Turkish
and Azerbaijani blockades, and by working for a lasting and durable
settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is agreeable to
all parties, and based upon America’s founding commitment to the
principles of democracy and self determination," Obama also said.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically rejects these claims, saying that 300,000
Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife
that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with the Russian troops who were invading
Ottoman territory. In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia
in a show of solidarity with its close ally, Azerbaijan, which was at
war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy
economic blow to the impoverished nation.
Last year, despite pleas from the George W. Bush administration,
the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives
passed a nonbinding resolution that described the events of 1915 as
genocide. Nancy Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and
an ardent supporter of the Armenian claims, has so far not brought
the resolution to the House floor after a strong appeal from the
Bush administration that passage of the resolution would deeply harm
relations with NATO ally Turkey.