ARMENIA PLEDGE PRESENTS DILEMMA

Atlanta Journal Constitution
rintedition/2009/03/15/turkey0315.html
March 15 2009

Washington — Turkey has become so pivotal to U.S. foreign policy
goals that President Barack Obama included it on his first overseas
tour. But relations between the countries could be at risk unless
Obama is willing to break a campaign promise to describe as "genocide"
the killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks almost a century ago.

Such a declaration would infuriate Turkey, which could complicate
U.S. military operations in the region by withholding cooperation.

"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," Obama said during
the campaign.

This is not an obscure historical debate that Obama can avoid easily.

It will be on the minds of government officials, media and the
public when Obama arrives in Turkey on April 5. A few weeks later,
Obama must decide how to deal with the issue in a statement to mark
the annual Armenian remembrance day, April 24.

Historians estimate that 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman
Turks around World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the
first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey denies that the deaths
constituted genocide, however, contending the toll has been inflated
and the casualties were victims of civil war and unrest.

Previous presidents, including George W. Bush and Bill Clinton,
avoided the word, even after committing in their campaigns to use it
as president.