The Washington-based office of the Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) hopes that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will attend the Memorial to Armenian Genocide victims during her visit to Yerevan. Official Washington has not recognized the Armenian Genocide.

Talking to RFE/RL, the head of the office Aram Hamparian said that the forthcoming visit reflects Armenia’s importance and the region’s role in the U.S. strategy. He also considers that the Obama administration should use this chance to review its unsuccessful policy on Karabakh and Armenian-Turkish Protocols.

If the visit is an opportunity to review and improve this policy, it is a positive event, he noted. In case it aims at strengthening the negative tendencies observed for recent 18 years, they do not cherish hopes for a positive outcome, Hamparian added.  

According to him, the best thing Clinton can do in the context of U.S. reviewing its policy on Armenian-Turkish relations is to visit the Genocide Memorial and make a serious statement concerning the recognition of the Armenian Genocide. By doing so, she will set America on the right path and put an end to Turkey’s denial policy. If she does not do it, the U.S. will again lose an opportunity.

The incumbent U.S. administration is moving forward in the wrong direction, there remains a mere memory of Obama’s campaign pledge to recognize the Genocide. Now Obama is silent about the vexed issue and does not recognize the Genocide. Moreover, the U.S. administration went even further, opposing a legislative initiative on Genocide in the Congress, Hamparian stated.