PRESIDENT OBAMA FAILS AGAIN TO HONOR GENOCIDE PLEDGE

Yerkir
26.04.2010 13:28
Yerevan

Yerevan (Yerkir) – In yet another disgraceful capitulation to Turkey’s
threats, President Obama today once again failed to properly recognize
the Armenian Genocide, offering euphemisms and evasive terminology
to characterize this crime against humanity, reported the Armenian
National Committee of America (ANCA).

"Today we join with Armenians in the United States and around the
world in voicing our sharp disappointment with the President’s
failure to properly condemn and commemorate the Armenian Genocide,"
stated ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.

"After more than a year of Turkey’s manipulation of the Obama
Administration’s policy on this core human rights issue, and the
collapse of even the pretense of progress of any sort coming from
Ankara, President Obama faced a stark choice: to honor his conscience
and commitment to recognize the Armenian Genocide or to remain an
accomplice to Turkey’s denial of truth and justice for this crime.

Sadly, for the U.S. and worldwide efforts to end the cycle of genocide,
he made the wrong choice, allowing Turkey to tighten its gag-rule on
American genocide policy."

In contrast to his remarks in 2009, the President chose not to use the
April 24th statement as a platform to push the flawed Turkey-Armenia
Protocols process – stalled by Turkey’s preconditions related to
the Nagorno Karabagh negotiations and shameful efforts to use the
Protocols to block international affirmation of the Armenian Genocide.

The ANCA, in an April 7 letter urging the President to honor his
genocide pledge, asked the White House to "mark this day sincerely
and not, as has too often been the case, to view it as an opportunity
to present a policy statement on the region." The letter continued to
note that an "explanation of U.S. priorities regarding Armenia-Turkey
relations or other current foreign policy issues, while certainly
entirely appropriate in other settings, clearly does not belong
in a Presidential April 24th statement, just as a statement of
U.S. policy on the Israel-Arab peace process would not be appropriate
in Presidential remarks devoted to remembering the Holocaust."

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress