Obama vows to back ‘genocide’ efforts

Barack Obama

1 May 2008 /TODAY'S ZAMAN

US Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama has once more voiced his firm support for standing with the Armenian American community in pushing Ankara to acknowledge the tragic World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide.

Obama's statement on the issue came only a few days after April 24, the day Armenians claim marks the anniversary of the beginning of a systematic genocide campaign against Armenians in the last years of the Ottoman Empire. "It is imperative that we recognize the horrific acts carried out against the Armenian people as genocide, and I will continue to stand with the Armenian American community in calling for the government of Turkey to acknowledge it as such," Obama said in his statement, which was welcomed by the Washington based-Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). ANCA announced earlier this year that they would be endorsing Obama as a candidate in the election. The support for Obama came days after he pledged in January to officially recognize the controversial World War I-era killings of Anatolian Armenians as genocide if he becomes president. "I was deeply disturbed two years ago when the US ambassador to Armenia was fired after he used the term 'genocide' to describe the mass slaughter of Armenians. I called for Secretary [of State Condoleezza] Rice to closely examine what I believe is an untenable position taken by the US government," Obama also said.

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