Adam Schiff: "Time to Recognize the Armenian Genocide"

PanARMENIAN.Net - Adam Schiff, a Democratic member of the U.S. Congress from California, in his article "Time to Recognize the Armenian Genocide" in The Wall Street Journal is talking about the visit of Barack Obama to Turkey and about the recognition of Armenian Genocide in this context.



"When President Barack Obama visits Turkey tomorrow, millions of Americans hope that he will fulfill a campaign promise by preparing the Turkish government for official American recognition of the Armenian Genocide of 1915-23", Schiff said.



According to the article, "no American president since World War II has come into office with a stronger understanding of the facts about this terrible chapter in history. And no president has a greater track record of speaking plainly about it: As a presidential candidate, Mr. Obama argued forcefully throughout the campaign that "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides."



"Words matter," as Mr. Obama said on Feb. 16, 2008. And genocide has a particular power, encompassing within a single word a crime of unsurpassed barbarity -- the effort to destroy an entire people."



As Schiff points in his article "this mammoth crime was well known at the time; newspapers of the day were filled with stories about the murder of Armenians. "Appeal to Turkey to stop massacres" headlined the New York Times on April 28, 1915, just as the killing began. On Oct. 7 of that year, the Times reported that 800,000 Armenians had been slain in cold blood in Asia Minor. By mid-December, the Times spoke of a million Armenians killed or in exile. Thousands of pages of evidence documenting the atrocities rest in our own National Archives."



And as a conclusion, the Congressman states, that "Mr. Obama must surely recognize that our failure to speak plainly about past genocides has impaired our ability to take action against the genocide taking place in Darfur. If we are unwilling to speak out against genocide when it would offend an ally, how can we persuade Russia or China to take action to stop the killing in Darfur if they would have to offend theirs?



On Nov. 11, 2007, in one of the most memorable speeches of his campaign, the future president told a South Carolina crowd that "I am running because of what Dr. King called 'the fierce urgency of now.' I am running because I do believe there's such a thing as being too late. And that hour is almost here." For the precious few victims of the Armenian Genocide still with us -- in their 90s and beyond -- that time has come.