Perhaps you followed some of the campaign platforms that were promoted during President Obama's quest for the White House, or maybe you just listened to what the pundits told you about this unprecendented candidate on your local news station. Either way, what you may or may not have heard from Mr. Obama during the campaing was a slick manuever at securing the majority of Armenian diaspora and human rights activists votes all in one fell swoop.
During his election campaign, Obama pledged to recognize the World War I-era killings of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire as an act of genocide. Which is already considered by many, not including the Turkish government, to be the first genocide of the 20th century. If Mr. Obama keeps his promise, Turkey and the United States may be heading towards a crisis early on in the Obama presidency, and Erdoğan (Prime Minister of Turkey) is expected to voice his concerns over this matter to Madeleine Albright at the G20 summit, analysts said.
Turkish news media has reported that in relation to the Armenian genocide, Turkish diplomats think the recent rapprochement between Ankara and Yerevan may not be enough to stop the Armenian diaspora’s efforts in the United States to have the 1915 incident officially recognized as genocide.
Both Obama and Biden had promised their voters of Armenian origin to work for such a recognition. Yet Turkish diplomats were quoted as stating, "There could be attempts for recognition early next year," the official said, adding, "But we have already started to work against this possibility. In our early contact with Obama and Biden’s advisers, we were clear about the sensitivity of the issue."
So, with Turkey's PM suggesting to Albright that Turkey offer its services to the U.S. to mediate talks with Iran, coupled with the platform promises of the Obama Biden campaign, we may or may not see the United States actually recognize the Armenian genocide as the Armenian genocide.
If I were a betting man, I would put my money on the events of 1915 as finally achieving the highly coveted status of official genocide. But who knows, Obama may have been blowing around smoke...from the Turkish hookah he took a hit from.
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Yeah, nice post Rooster. Those Turks have blood on their hands and it wont wash easy. There have been better relations between Armenia and Turkey of late but the Turkish nationalists will never admit it--unless they have to.
So, what they have, is that the U.S. needs their bases for Iraq. Now that it is all shutting down, but this I mean the American need to supply Iraq from the north, I don't know how much leverage Turkey is still going to have.
Bush was totally on board with recognition, until he invaded Iraq. He needed bases in Turkish Kurdistan to supply Iraqi Kurdistan. Gee...
But now that the leverage is weaken, and most of the Armos who had to flee are dead, it might be time to settle the damn thing once and for all--shame they couldn't see it for themselves as the Jews did.
For one, I think that the border between Turkey and Armenia will be opened. Two, I think that Armenia should get Mt. Ararat and perhaps some $$ or economic aid.
But most importantly, we need to settle it because the international community needs to not tolerate genocide. Not on our watch; Never again.
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