InternationalA second lost opportunity
by Ross Vartian
Published: Friday April 24, 2009
Ross Vartian, executive director of the US-Armenia Public Affairs Committee, with Judy Vartian, at the Congressional congressional commemoration of the Armenian Genocide on April 22, 2009. Armenian Reporter
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Washington - The following statement was issued on April 24 by Ross Vartian, executive director of the U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee (USAPAC).
President Obama's April 24 statement is his second lost opportunity to affirm the Armenian Genocide.
On the first occasion, his visit to the Republic of Turkey, the President stated that his view on the Armenian Genocide was well known and remained unchanged, yet he chose not to utter the word "genocide". The President then urged the Turkish government and people to face this history, just as America had done with African-Americans and Native Americans.
On the second occasion, the solemn remembrance day of April 24, President Obama failed to affirm his record as Senator and his repeated pledges as candidate for the presidency to characterize this crime against humanity by its proper name, the Armenian Genocide.
Instead, the President committed his administration to fully support the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey "without preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe". While a laudable objective, normal relations between these nations and an open Armenian-Turkish border are not substitutes for the United States affirming its own voluminous history on the Armenian Genocide and its directly linked global responsibility to help end the scourge of genocide.
President Obama knows very well and has eloquently acknowledged that as long as genocide denial is tolerated that the act of genocide itself continues, as it does for Armenians on this day of commemoration and remembrance, April 24, 2009.
