PRO-ARMENIA CONGRESSMEN APPEAL TO OBAMA
Today’s Zaman
9-102-pro-armenia-congressmen-appeal-to-obama.html
August 1 2009
Turkey
More than 80 members of the US House of Representatives have sent
a joint letter to President Barack Obama claiming that Turkey has
backtracked from an April agreement to normalize relations with Armenia
and appealed to the president to treat his past promise to recognize
an alleged Armenian genocide separately from the Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation process.
In the July 29 letter, initiated by Congressional Armenian Caucus
Co-Chairs Frank Pallone and Mark Kirk as well as Adam Schiff
and George Radanovich, both lead sponsors of a draft resolution
in the House calling for US recognition of the alleged genocide,
the congressmen said Turkey’s commitment to normalizing relations
with Armenia, under a deal Turkey and Armenia announced in April,
was questionable. The announcement that the two countries reached
an agreement on a "roadmap" on how to normalize their relations came
just two days before the April 24 "genocide" commemoration day.
Obama, who pledged to recognize the genocide claims in his election
campaign, avoided using the g-word in his traditional April 24
message. He said earlier that he did not want to harm Turkish-Armenian
reconciliation prospects.
"It would appear that Turkey, in an effort to block US recognition
of the Armenian Genocide, agreed to a roadmap it did not intend to
uphold," the letter read. "Therefore, we urge your Administration to
separate the issues of normalization and genocide recognition. We hope
that renewed efforts and focused resources from the Administration
can be utilized to nurture the Armenia-Turkey normalization process
without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe and continue
to remain strongly supportive of your stated campaign policy to
officially recognize the Armenian Genocide."
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
