ARMENIANS ACCUSE OBAMA ON ‘GENOCIDE’

AzerNews Weekly
Sept 1 2009
Azerbaijan

Armenians have criticized US President Barack Obama for the recent
court ruling that refused to compensate descendants of the victims
of alleged World War I-era genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Kiro Manoyan,
who heads a political research center at the nationalist Dashnaksutyun
Party, claimed that Obama was to blame for the decision of the appeals
court that overruled a ruling by a California court on paying out life
insurance benefits to relatives of the alleged genocide victims. He
believes that if Obama had used the term "genocide" in his address
this April – the month Armenians commemorate a date marking the
alleged massacres – the higher court would not have invalidated the
previous decision.

The judge at the California court of appeal who handed down the
ruling said the state bears no responsibility for the developments
that took place miles away from the United States, emphasizing that
the US government has not reached a decision to recognize the alleged
genocide.

Armenians, who say Ottoman Turks killed 1.5 million people in 1915,
a claim strenuously dismissed by Turkey, are seeking passage of a
"genocide" bill in the US Congress.