Obama recalls "failure" to recognize Armenian Genocide in new book

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former U.S. President Barack Obama in new book "A Promised Land" has spoken about his failure to recognize the Armenian Genocide while still in office.

According to a screenshot shared by Senior Securities Policy Adviser Lev Bagramian on Twitter, Obama weighed in on about his work with Samantha Power who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations from 2013 to 2017. Power is a champion of the recognition of the Armenian Genocide but has faced criticism for her silence on Obama's failure to recognize the Genocide.

"She (Power) was shattered when on Armenian Remembrance Day I failed to explicitly acknowledge the early-twentieth-century genocide of Armenians at the hands of the Turks," the former U.S. President wrote.

Obama claimed he had "good reason" to not make a statement at the time. He said the Turks were "deeply touchy about the issue", and he was "in delicate negotiations" with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on managing America's withdrawal from Iraq: "But still she made me feel like a heel."

April 24, 1915 is the day when a group of Armenian intellectuals was rounded up and assassinated in Constantinople by the Ottoman government. On April 24, Armenians worldwide commemorated the 104th anniversary of the Genocide which continued until 1923. Some three dozen countries, hundreds of local government bodies and international organizations have so far recognized the killings of 1.5 million Armenians as Genocide. Turkey denies to this day.