ANCA: Obama continues to outsource his policy on Armenian Genocide

ANCA: Obama continues to outsource his policy on Armenian Genocide

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian issued the a statement regarding President Obama's April 24 Armenian Remembrance Day message, which once against stops short of properly characterizing the crime as 'Genocide.'

"President Obama continues to outsource his policy on the Armenian Genocide, effectively granting Turkey a veto over America's response to this crime against humanity. It's a sad spectacle to see our President, who came into office having promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide, reduced to enforcing a foreign government's gag-rule on what our country can say about a genocide so very thoroughly documented in our own nation's archives," Hamparian said.

"The fact remains that any durable improvement in Armenian-Turkish relations will require that Ankara end its denials, accept its moral and material responsibilities, and agree to a truthful and just international resolution of this still unpunished crime against all humanity. While we do note that the President chose to join in today's national remembrance, we remain profoundly disappointed that he has, once again, retreated from his own promises and fallen short of the principled stand taken by previous presidents. For our part, we remain committed to aligning U.S. policy on the Armenian Genocide - and all genocides - with the core values and humanitarian spirit of the American people," he added.

In his April 24 statement this year, Obama said: “Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghern and honor those who perished in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century. We recall the horror of what happened ninety-nine years ago, when 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, and we grieve for the lives lost and the suffering endured by those men, women, and children. We are joined in solemn commemoration by millions in the United States and across the world. In so doing, we remind ourselves of our shared commitment to ensure that such dark chapters of human history are never again repeated.”

As a senator, Obama co-sponsored a resolution calling for the use of the term “genocide”. During the 2008 campaign, Obama said: "My firmly held conviction (is) 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," he said in a statement. "The facts are undeniable," Obama wrote. "As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."

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