US SENATOR: OBAMA SHOULD CALL ARMENIAN KILLINGS ‘GENOCIDE’

Agence France Presse
October 21, 2009 Wednesday 6:30 PM GMT
WASHINGTON

A US Senator on Wednesday introduced legislation calling on President
Barack Obama to officially recognize the 1915 massacres of Armenians
by Ottoman Turks as "genocide."

"One and a half million Armenians experienced Hell on Earth, and to
sweep their plight under the rug is to insult their memories and their
descendants," said Democratic Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey.

Obama angered Armenian groups in April when he did not use the term
"genocide" when he marked Armenian Remembrance Day, despite having
promised during his 2008 run for the White House to use that exact
term.

The US president branded the killings of more than 1.5 million
Armenians — a figure Turkey disputes — as "one of the great
atrocities of the 20th century" and used the Armenian term for the
killings, "Meds Yeghern" which has been variously translated as
"The Great Calamity" or "Great Disaster."

The proposed Senate resolution urges Obama "to accurately characterize
the systematic and deliberate annihilation of 1,500,000 Armenians as
genocide" in the annual presidential decree.

"It is long past time that our nation help set the historical record
straight and provide a foundation of understanding that helps prevent
future atrocities," said Menendez.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were systematically
killed between 1915 and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire, the predecessor
of modern Turkey, was falling apart.

Turkey rejects the genocide label, saying between 300,000 and 500,000
Armenians and at least as many Turks died in civil strife when
Armenians took up arms in eastern Anatolia and sided with invading
Russian troops.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress