PanArmenian News, Armenia
April 24 2009

Ruben Safrastyan: Obama excelled his predecessors

25.04.2009 14:44 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ U.S. President Barack Obama excelled his
predecessors in his annual April 24 statement and this fact is
welcome, an Armenian professor said.

`Obama employed the term Genocide, which is used by Armenians and has
no legal power, while Genocide is the term used in international
law. Nevertheless, I think progress has been fixed and adoption of the
Armenian Genocide resolution will not be opposed by the White House
any longer,’ Ruben Safrastyan, director of the NAS RA Institute of
Oriental Studies, told PanARMENIAN.Net.

At that, he thinks that the joint statement issued by the Armenian and
Turkish Foreign Ministries was not the key reason for Obama’s not
saying `genocide’.

`Turkey is an important ally for U.S. in case with Afghanistan and
Iraq. The Armenian-Turkish relations have nothing to do with it,’
prof. Safrastyan said.