Tweet
OBAMA AGAIN BREAKS PROMISE TO COMMEMORATE ARMENIAN 'GENOCIDE'
By Olivier Knox
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-breaks-promise-commemorate-armenian-genocide/story?id=16202151
April 24 2012
One day after paying a solemn visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, President Barack Obama on Tuesday called the mass killings
of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915 "one of the
worst atrocities of the 20th century" but again broke a 2008 campaign
promise to label the tragedy "genocide."
"We honor the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally
massacred or marched to their deaths in the waning days of the Ottoman
Empire," Obama said in a written statement on Armenian Remembrance Day.
"A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of
our interests. Moving forward with the future cannot be done without
reckoning with the facts of the past," Obama said in a implicit
appeal for vital American ally Turkey to move closer to recognizing
the massacre.
Turkey, a NATO member, fiercely disputes the genocide charge, and has
warned that formal U.S. steps to use the term will hamper relations.
Turkey's Ambassador to Washington Namik Tan sharply criticized a
similar statement from Obama in 2011, taking to Twitter to denounce
it as inaccurate, flawed, and one-sided.
The issue is also a powerful one for Armenian Americans. "The Armenian
Reporter" news site has repeatedly and forcefully condemned what it
mockingly calls "amnesia" on the part of Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who as senators co-sponsored a resolution calling
for the use of the term "genocide" when discussing the tragedy.
On Oct. 2, 2008, the paper published a letter from then-candidate
Obama in which he trumpeted "my firmly held conviction that the
Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a
point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence."
"The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats
to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy," Obama wrote.
"As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, Ken
Hachikian, issued a blistering denunciation of Obama's latest
statement, saying it made "a stark lie" out of his 2008 campaign
pledge and charged it "represents the very opposite of the principled
and honest change he promised to Armenian Americans and to all the
citizens of our nation."
Armenian-American celebrity Kim Kardashian marked the event on her
official Twitter feed, @kimkardashian. "Today lets all stand together
& remember the 1.5 million people who were massacred in the Armenian
Genocide. April 24th, 1915. #NEVERFORGET," she wrote.
ANCA, which has a list detailing Obama's pre-White House support for
labeling the massacre a "genocide," recently condemned Clinton for
saying recently that whether to call it that "has always been viewed,
and I think properly so, as a matter of historical debate."
Over 20 countries have recognized the events of 1915 as genocide,
and 42 U.S. states have done so as well, either by legislation or
proclamation. Congressional resolutions aimed at doing the same at
the national level have never become law. Successive presidents have
objected on grounds that doing so risks angering Turkey.
By Olivier Knox
ABC News
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/OTUS/obama-breaks-promise-commemorate-armenian-genocide/story?id=16202151
April 24 2012
One day after paying a solemn visit to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial
Museum, President Barack Obama on Tuesday called the mass killings
of Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915 "one of the
worst atrocities of the 20th century" but again broke a 2008 campaign
promise to label the tragedy "genocide."
"We honor the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally
massacred or marched to their deaths in the waning days of the Ottoman
Empire," Obama said in a written statement on Armenian Remembrance Day.
"A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all of
our interests. Moving forward with the future cannot be done without
reckoning with the facts of the past," Obama said in a implicit
appeal for vital American ally Turkey to move closer to recognizing
the massacre.
Turkey, a NATO member, fiercely disputes the genocide charge, and has
warned that formal U.S. steps to use the term will hamper relations.
Turkey's Ambassador to Washington Namik Tan sharply criticized a
similar statement from Obama in 2011, taking to Twitter to denounce
it as inaccurate, flawed, and one-sided.
The issue is also a powerful one for Armenian Americans. "The Armenian
Reporter" news site has repeatedly and forcefully condemned what it
mockingly calls "amnesia" on the part of Obama and Secretary of State
Hillary Clinton, who as senators co-sponsored a resolution calling
for the use of the term "genocide" when discussing the tragedy.
On Oct. 2, 2008, the paper published a letter from then-candidate
Obama in which he trumpeted "my firmly held conviction that the
Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a
point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an
overwhelming body of historical evidence."
"The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats
to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy," Obama wrote.
"As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
The chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, Ken
Hachikian, issued a blistering denunciation of Obama's latest
statement, saying it made "a stark lie" out of his 2008 campaign
pledge and charged it "represents the very opposite of the principled
and honest change he promised to Armenian Americans and to all the
citizens of our nation."
Armenian-American celebrity Kim Kardashian marked the event on her
official Twitter feed, @kimkardashian. "Today lets all stand together
& remember the 1.5 million people who were massacred in the Armenian
Genocide. April 24th, 1915. #NEVERFORGET," she wrote.
ANCA, which has a list detailing Obama's pre-White House support for
labeling the massacre a "genocide," recently condemned Clinton for
saying recently that whether to call it that "has always been viewed,
and I think properly so, as a matter of historical debate."
Over 20 countries have recognized the events of 1915 as genocide,
and 42 U.S. states have done so as well, either by legislation or
proclamation. Congressional resolutions aimed at doing the same at
the national level have never become law. Successive presidents have
objected on grounds that doing so risks angering Turkey.