Armenian diaspora prepares to protest President Obama ahead of April 24
US President Barack Obama will encounter a public protest when he visits the Los Angeles area on April 21 as the Armenian diaspora has upped the pressure on Washington to officially recognize the killings of Anatolian Armenians during World War I as genocide in the run-up to the upcoming anniversary of the deaths, which is marked on April 24 as “Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day.”

The Armenian Genocide Community Task Force has issued a call to the entire Armenian-American diaspora in Southern California, calling on the community to join a public protest to be held outside a fundraising event for Obama at Sony Studios. “He must hear our community’s profound disappointment with his failure to honor his campaign promise that as president, he would recognize the Armenian Genocide and deliver justice to the Armenian people,” the call said, according to the Los Angeles-based English-language Armenian newspaper Asbarez. In Yerevan, meanwhile, a leading member of the Armenian National Assembly said on Sunday that Obama will not use the term genocide this year either, as she highlighted that the issue is not on the political agenda of the United States.

2011-04-18

Muhabir: Today’s Zaman