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Today's Zaman, Turkey
Jan 26 2008
Clinton follows Obama, pledges recognition of Armenian `genocide'
Days after her rival Barack Obama, US presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton has also pledged to officially recognize the controversial
World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide if she
becomes president.
A written statement penned by Clinton and sent to an influential
Armenian diaspora organization on Thursday was made public by the
group yesterday. Last week, Obama sent a written statement to
organization, the Washington based-Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA), announcing his support of a resolution pending at the
US Congress for recognition of the allegations on the controversial
issue.
"I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire
against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide. I have twice
written to President [George W.] Bush calling on him to refer to the
Armenian Genocide in his annual commemorative statement and, as
President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide. Our common
morality and our nation's credibility as a voice for human rights
challenge us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and
remembered by the Congress and the President of the United States,"
Clinton said in her statement published on ANCA's Web site.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically rejects these claims, saying that 300,000
Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife
that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with the Russian troops who were invading
Ottoman territory. In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia
in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at
war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy
economic blow to the impoverished nation.
Last year, despite pleas from the Bush administration, the US House
of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a nonbinding
resolution that described the events of 1915 as genocide. Nancy
Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and an ardent
supporter of the Armenian claims, has so far not brought the
resolution to the House floor, after a strong appeal from the Bush
administration that passage of the resolution would deeply harm
relations with NATO ally Turkey.
As a senator, Clinton has since 2002 cosponsored successive Armenian
genocide resolutions. She joined Senate colleagues in cosigning
letters to Bush in 2005 and 2006 urging him to recognize the events
as genocide.
In October 2000, weeks before a presidential election, Armenian
groups came very close to a victory in the United States, with a
genocide resolution reaching the House floor. Yet, only hours before
a final vote, then President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and Hillary
Clinton's spouse, personally intervened and urged Republican House
Speaker Dennis Hastert to withdraw the resolution on grounds of
national security. Hastert agreed, prompting major disappointment
among Armenians.
26.01.2008
Today's Zaman Ankara
Jan 26 2008
Clinton follows Obama, pledges recognition of Armenian `genocide'
Days after her rival Barack Obama, US presidential candidate Hillary
Clinton has also pledged to officially recognize the controversial
World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide if she
becomes president.
A written statement penned by Clinton and sent to an influential
Armenian diaspora organization on Thursday was made public by the
group yesterday. Last week, Obama sent a written statement to
organization, the Washington based-Armenian National Committee of
America (ANCA), announcing his support of a resolution pending at the
US Congress for recognition of the allegations on the controversial
issue.
"I believe the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire
against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide. I have twice
written to President [George W.] Bush calling on him to refer to the
Armenian Genocide in his annual commemorative statement and, as
President, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide. Our common
morality and our nation's credibility as a voice for human rights
challenge us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and
remembered by the Congress and the President of the United States,"
Clinton said in her statement published on ANCA's Web site.
Armenians claim up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in
orchestrated killings during the last years of the Ottoman Empire.
Turkey categorically rejects these claims, saying that 300,000
Armenians, along with at least as many Turks, died in civil strife
that emerged when the Armenians took up arms for independence in
eastern Anatolia and sided with the Russian troops who were invading
Ottoman territory. In 1993 Turkey also shut its border with Armenia
in a show of solidarity with its close ally Azerbaijan, which was at
war with Armenia over the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave, dealing a heavy
economic blow to the impoverished nation.
Last year, despite pleas from the Bush administration, the US House
of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs passed a nonbinding
resolution that described the events of 1915 as genocide. Nancy
Pelosi, speaker of the House of Representatives and an ardent
supporter of the Armenian claims, has so far not brought the
resolution to the House floor, after a strong appeal from the Bush
administration that passage of the resolution would deeply harm
relations with NATO ally Turkey.
As a senator, Clinton has since 2002 cosponsored successive Armenian
genocide resolutions. She joined Senate colleagues in cosigning
letters to Bush in 2005 and 2006 urging him to recognize the events
as genocide.
In October 2000, weeks before a presidential election, Armenian
groups came very close to a victory in the United States, with a
genocide resolution reaching the House floor. Yet, only hours before
a final vote, then President Bill Clinton, a Democrat and Hillary
Clinton's spouse, personally intervened and urged Republican House
Speaker Dennis Hastert to withdraw the resolution on grounds of
national security. Hastert agreed, prompting major disappointment
among Armenians.
26.01.2008
Today's Zaman Ankara