A written statement penned by Obama and sent to an influential Armenian diaspora organization was made public by the group on Monday. While announcing Obama's statement, the Washington based-Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) expressed pleasure over the statement, titled "The Importance of US-Armenia Relations" and dated Jan. 19.Obama wrote that he had a "firmly held conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion, or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."
"The facts are undeniable. An official policy that calls on diplomats to distort historical facts is an untenable policy. As a senator, I strongly support passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, and as President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide," Obama said in the statement, which has also been aired on his campaign Web site at www.barackobama.com.
"I will promote Armenian security by seeking an end to the Turkish and Azerbaijani blockades, and by working for a lasting and durable settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict that is agreeable to all parties, and based upon America's founding commitment to the principles of democracy and self determination," Obama also said.
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 George W. Bush administration, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the US House of Representatives 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.
Benzer Haberler 
Diplomacy
