U.S. President Barack Obama should make it clear that his not using the term ‘genocide’ does not mean any other president cannot recognize the Armenian Genocide, Head of the Hay Dat (Armenian Cause) Office Giro Manoyan told reporters.

Manoyan also addressed an appellate judgement rendered by one of the courts of appeal in California, USA, on August 20. The court invalidated as unconstitutional the law on life insurance indemnities for the relatives of victims of the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire in 1915. Manoyan presented the details of the judgement the Armenian side is going to appeal.

Manoyan is sure that the judgement must be appealed. Otherwise Turkey will be cashing in on it to force the U.S. states that recognized the Armenian Genocide to invalidate the resolutions as unconstitutional. The Turkish lobby will thus try to prevent the adoption of a resolution on the Armenian Genocide by the US Congress.

Manoyan offers two ways of preventing such developments – a political and a legal one.

The political way is that the Armenian lobby in the United States gets President Obama to clearly state that his not using the term “genocide” does not mean that any other president cannot recognize the Armenian Genocide. The legal way is appealing the judgement, the more so that only two of 10-12 justices were considering the claim, and only three justices rendered the judgement. The last resort is, Manoyan said, applying to the United States Supreme Court. It is important that the judgement not become a precedent for the U.S. judicial system.

As to whether the United State is trying to pressure Armenia by means of such judgements, Manoyan said: “I do not want to believe that the Executive can so easily use the Judiciary in the United States. However, Armenia is obviously being pressured in the context of Armenian-Turkish relations irrespective of the judgement in question,” he said.

It is noteworthy that a week remains for the judgement to be appealed.