OBAMA REAFFIRMS COMMITMENT TO ‘GENOCIDE’ RECOGNITION

Today’s Zaman
June 19 2008
Turkey

US Democratic presidential presumptive nominee Barack Obama has once
again voiced commitment to the official recognition of an alleged
genocide of Armenians in the final years of the Ottoman Empire.

In a letter sent to an influential lobbying group of the Armenian
diaspora, Obama said he shared the group’s view that Washington "must
recognize the events of 1915 to 1923, carried out by the Ottoman
Empire, as genocide."

"We must recognize this tragic reality. The Bush administration’s
refusal to do so is inexcusable, and I will continue to speak out
in an effort to move the administration to change its position,"
Obama said in the letter, addressed to Ken Hachikian, chairman of
the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA.) The letter was
published on ANCA’s Web page on Tuesday.

"I was deeply disturbed two years ago when the US ambassador to
Armenia was fired after he used the term ‘genocide’ to describe the
mass slaughter of Armenians. In a letter to the Department of State,
I called for Secretary Rice to closely examine what I believe is an
untenable position taken by the US government. A copy of that letter is
enclosed for your review," Obama also said, referring to the fact that
back in 2006, then-US Ambassador to Armenia John Evan reportedly had
his tour of duty in Armenia cut short by the administration because,
in a social setting, he referred to the killings as "genocide."

In August the White House withdrew its nomination of a career diplomat,
Richard Hoagland, after Democratic Senator Robert Menendez held up
confirmation hearings because of his refusal to call World War I-era
killings of Armenians a genocide.

Late in March, President George W. Bush nominated another career
diplomat, Marie Yovanovitch, who is currently ambassador to the Kyrgyz
Republic, to be US ambassador to Armenia.

"The ANCA has spoken to committee members about the value of carefully
questioning Ambassador Yovanovitch on the many issues she will face as
the US envoy in Yerevan, among them the recognition of the Armenian
genocide, Turkey and Azerbaijan’s ongoing blockades of Armenia, and
the need for a balanced US role in helping forge a democratic and
peaceful resolution to the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict," ANCA said in
its report on Tuesday.

Yovanovitch’s confirmation hearing before the US Senate Foreign
Relations Committee is scheduled to take place on Thursday.