THE WASHINGTON POST: WILL OBAMA RECOGNIZE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE?
PanARMENIAN.Net
20.03.2009 21:14 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ During last year’s presidential campaign, Barack
Obama repeatedly insisted that, as president, he would "recognize the
Armenian genocide." Obama’s pledge may have been smart politics. But
now that Obama is president, his pledge has put him in a diplomatically
difficult position. The question of calling the deaths a genocide has
returned just as Obama is preparing for a visit next month to Turkey,
which firmly rejects such a label.
"There is no substitute for speaking plainly when you are talking
about mass murder," said Rep. Adam B. Schiff, who introduced this
week a resolution calling on the president to publicly recognize
a genocide and whose district contains the largest concentration of
Armenian Americans in the country. "I hope he will use the opportunity
to prepare Turkey for U.S. recognition and to encourage Turkey to
have an open examination of its past."
U.S.-Turkish relations are on an upswing after a dismal period
immediately after the invasion of Iraq. Turkey, a NATO member, also
plays an increasingly important role in the Middle East, the Caucasus
and the Balkans. Ahmet Davutoglu, the chief foreign policy adviser to
Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdogan, said he stressed that point in
meetings this week with senior administration officials. He also made
the case that Turkish-Armenian relations are improving in the wake
of Erdogan’s recent visit to Armenia, and that any U.S. resolution
on genocide would only set back that progress.
But the administration’s outreach to Turkey must be balanced against
the high hopes that Obama inspired among Armenian Americans, Washington
Post reported.