ANCA: TURKEY ENLISTED U.S. ADMINISTRATION COOPERATION TO BLOCK ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

PanARMENIAN.Net
08.12.2009 13:33 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Armenian Americans made their final push in their
month-long Countdown to Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
with a White House call-in day urging President Barack Obama to honor
his campaign pledge by telling visiting Erdogan that the U.S. condemns
the Armenian Genocide, reported the Armenian National Committee of
America, (ANCA).

"In April, President Obama missed an opportunity to reclaim the moral
high ground on ending the cycle of genocide," stated ANCA Executive
Director Aram Hamparian. "Today, in his meeting with Prime Minister
Erdogan, we urge President Obama to ‘get it right’ – by recognizing
the Armenian Genocide and urging Turkey’s leadership to do the same."

The ANCA Executive Director expressed concerns about Prime Minister
Erdogan’s efforts to use the meeting with Obama to continue U.S.

complicity in Armenian Genocide denial.

"Prime Minister Erdogan – having succeeded in using the Ankara-inspired
Protocols to enlist the cooperation of yet another U.S. Administration
into its campaign to block recognition of the Armenian Genocide –
is now coming to Washington to cement his gains and further press
his advantage," said Aram Hamparian.

"High on his agenda, it seems, will be showcasing Turkey’s public
disregard for President Obama’s twin priorities for Armenia-Turkey
normalization, namely that they be established without preconditions
and within a reasonable time-frame. Today, more than seven months
after our President’s speech in Ankara – during which he broke his
pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide – it’s patently clear that
Turkey has in fact imposed preconditions, will not act in a reasonable
time-frame, and, more broadly, views this entire process as simply
a way to extend U.S. complicity in Turkey’s denials from one April
24th to the next," added Hamparian.