President Obama's Chief of Staff Denis McDonough and Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes confirmed to Armenian American leaders, during a White House meeting this afternoon, that the President has decided not to recognize the Armenian Genocide in his April 24th statement.
"President Obama's surrender to Turkey represents a national disgrace. It is, very simply, a betrayal of truth, a betrayal of trust," said ANCA Chairman Ken Hachikian.
"With the world's attention drawn this April 24th to worldwide Armenian Genocide Centennial commemorations, President Obama will, tragically, use the moral standing of our nation not to defend the truth, but rather to enforce of a foreign power's gag-rule. He has effectively outsourced America's policy on the Armenian Genocide to Recep Erdogan," said Hachikian.
"As Americans of Armenian heritage - despite the repeated surrender of President Obama to foreign pressure - we will, with our allies, continue to work, with increased vigor and determination, to build American support for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian Genocide," he noted.
During his election campaign, President Obama had pledged to term the Ottoman Turkey's murder of over 1.5 million Armenians between 1915 and 1923 as genocide. In fact, his January 19, 2008 statement reads: "The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort the historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.106 and S.Res.106), and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
The U.S. first recognized the Armenian Genocide in 1951 through a filing included in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) Report titled: "Reservations to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide." Referring to the Armenian Genocide, page 25 of the ICJ Report reads: "The Genocide Convention resulted from the inhuman and barbarous practices which prevailed in certain countries prior to and during World War II, when entire religious, racial and national minority groups were threatened with and subjected to deliberate extermination. The practice of genocide has occurred throughout human history. The Roman persecution of the Christians, the Turkish massacres of Armenians, the extermination of millions of Jews and Poles by the Nazis are outstanding examples of the crime of genocide."
President Ronald Reagan reaffirmed the Armenian Genocide in 1981. The U.S. House of Representatives adopted legislation on the Armenian Genocide in 1975, 1984 and 1996.
