ARMENIAN ASSEMBLY OF AMERICA SUPPORT BARACK OBAMA’S DECISION TO VISIT TURKEY
PanARMENIAN.Net
18.03.2009 21:45 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ "As President Barack Obama plans his trip to Turkey
next month, we would like to express our support for this decision,"
said Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly) Executive Director Bryan
Ardouny. "An irreversible trend has commenced in Turkey and President
Obama’s visit presents a unique opportunity for the President to
reinforce this message, as well as his own statements reaffirming
the historical truth of the Armenian Genocide."
The Assembly wholeheartedly agrees with President Obama, Vice President
Biden and Secretary of State Clinton that the Armenian Genocide is an
historical fact that must be affirmed. As then Senator Obama stated
"America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian
Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides."
The Assembly looks forward to change in Washington, including the
repudiation and reversal of the Bush Administration’s doctrine
that disallowed State Department officials to publicly acknowledge
the Armenian Genocide, and what our own U.S. Ambassador to the
Ottoman Empire, Henry Morgenthau, described as a campaign of race
extermination.
The Assembly is encouraged by the recent signs of rapprochement between
Turkey and Armenia, and commends Armenia’s President Serzh Sargsyan
for his bold actions. Normalization of relations and Turkey’s lifting
of its 15-year long blockade of Armenia should not be held hostage
to U.S. reaffirmation of the Armenian Genocide.