ARMENIANS BRACE FOR ERDOGAN’S U.S. VISIT
United Press International UPI
Dec 1 2009
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 (UPI) — A U.S.-based Armenian advocacy group has
ramped up efforts to encourage Washington to recognize the Armenian
genocide ahead of a visit by the Turkish premier.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is scheduled to meet with
U.S. President Barack Obama on Dec. 7.
The Armenian National Committee of America stepped up its lobbying
efforts ahead of the visit, calling on its supporters to contact
their Washington representatives to encourage Obama to make true on
his campaign pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide.
During World War I, members of the Armenian community were forced on
a supposed death march to Syria and Iraq by the Ottoman regime.
Turkey’s English-language daily newspaper Hurriyet describes the
group as "the largest and most radical" pro-Armenian group in the
United States.
The ANCA, for its part, points to repeated accounts of slander by
Turkish lobbyists, calling on its supporters to call them out on
allegations of bias.
The Armenian diaspora in the United States has been urging the U.S.
government to formally recognize the deaths of more than a million
Armenians as genocide.
Two measures on the Armenian genocide are before U.S. lawmakers
currently.