Interests superior over values in US’ and Israel’s approach to the Armenian genocide – president

In 2015, Armenians all over the world commemorate the centenary of the genocide in Ottoman Turkey. Over 20 states and a number of influential international organizations recognized the Armenian genocide. But the USA and Israel do not recognize the genocide officially and continue calling it “massacres”.

They say the recognition will undermine their national interests that require not offending Turkey, Sargsyan said. He said he understood by could not perceive this. 

Sargsyan also reminded that some 44 states have already recognized the genocide, and some of the US presidents used the ‘genocide’ term. Obama himself used the term many times while being a congressman, and criticized his competitors for their ambiguous stance on this matter, he said. 

The same with Israel: the current president, when being a Knesset deputy, was among those urging to recognize the Armenian genocide, but has changed his vocabulary a bit since then, the Armenian president said. 

Armenia does not consider the current Turkish authorities guilty of the genocide, but they become accomplices when they deny it, Sargsyan said. 

“We would like them to clean the slate,” Sargsyan said. 

Any crime, if not revealed and not punished, paves way for further crimes, the Armenian president said. Recognition of the crimes in the past is the best tool to prevent the new ones, he said. 

The president also said he had invited his Turkish counterpart to the genocide commemoration ceremonies in Yerevan to pay tribute to the memory of victims together. He said he was almost sure Erdogan would not come, but felt obliged to invite him, even when the probability of the visit was one percent only. According to Sargsyan, the Armenian people would treat him with respect if he came. 

There are currently no diplomatic relations established between Turkey and Armenia: official Ankara closed the border in 1993. The uneasy relationship between the countries is caused particularly by Ankara’s support to Azerbaijan on Karabakh problem and Turkey’s overreaction to international recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in Ottoman Empire. 

Some reconciliation in the relations started in autumn 2008 initiated by Armenia’s president Serzh Sargsyan. Foreign ministers of Armenia and Turkey signed protocols about establishing diplomatic relations in Zurich on October 10 2009 to be ratified by the parliaments. 

On April 22 2010 Armenia’s president Sargsyan suspended the ratification process saying the political majority in the National Assembly considered statements from the Turkish side unacceptable, “specifically those by Prime Minister Erdogan, who has again made the ratification of the Armenia-Turkey protocols by the Turkish parliament directly dependent on a resolution over Nagorno-Karabakh.” 

In a statement issued on February 16, president Sargsyan said he had asked parliament speaker Galust Sahakian to return the protocol to him since "the Turkish government has no political will, distorts the spirit and letter of the protocols, and continues its policy of setting preconditions." 

The Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the twentieth century. 

According to Armenian and many other historians, up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed starting in 1915 in a systematic campaign by the government of Turkey. 

Turkey has been denying it for decades. 

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by tens of countries. The first was Uruguay that did so in 1965. Other nations are Russia, France, Italy, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, Sweden, Switzerland, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Canada, Venezuela, Argentina, 43 U.S. states. 

It was recognized also by the Vatican, the European Parliament, the World Council of Churches and other international organizations. –0--