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In this regard, this letter emphasizes various statements made by President Obama who made far more than his predecessors on the recognition of the Unpunished Genocide and was a key-point of his foreign policy. Barack Obama declared his firm 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” and he affirmed that “as President”, he will “recognize the Armenian Genocide” and allow the pending resolutions in the Congress.
The letter takes note of “the efforts made by entities that do not share” the US president’s vision of humanity – clearly speaking Turkey and reactionary forces in the United States - and that aim to prevent the US “administration from pursuing these progressive policies” on the Genocide issue to highlight by contrast the positive aspects that would have such a recognition on International politics and regional stability.
The petition thus states that European Armenians along with other European mainstream democratic forces would never accept Turkey’s membership as long as “the Turkish state denies the Armenian Genocide, promotes racism and pursues a policy of discrimination towards its minorities”. It also underscores that the genocide recognition by the United States “will unleash the momentum of true change and democratization inside Turkey; a momentum which must lead to an ultimate recognition of this mass crime by Turkey itself”. The petition finally stresses that the recognition “will also provide an unprecedented momentum to the process of dialogue between Turkey and Armenia” in making clear that “the way forward will definitely require of Turkey a fundamental commitment to just peace”.
“Our approach – the European citizens’ approach and especially the one of the European Armenians – aims at supporting on this particular issue the vision of the new US administration: Recognizing the Armenian Genocide means moving toward a durable peace; it means more stability, more justice and more democracy in the region. These are European values, these are the ones of the European Armenian Federation and, with President Obama, we wish that they become again the ones of the United States stated Hilda Tchoboian, the chairperson of the European Armenian Federation.
Taking example on the “Turkey’s recent support for the Sudanese president who is under arrest warrant by the International Criminal Court”, the call highlights that any step backward on the Armenian Genocide recognition process “would be interpreted by genocide-perpetrating governments as full license to continue their bloody acts and criminal complicities”.
“Recognizing the Armenian Genocide is not an act of hostility against Turkey as claimed by hawkish supporters of RealPolitik. On the contrary, it will help Turkey to be set free from its bloody past to stand with credibility at the respectable place it seeks among the International community” concluded Hilda Tchoboian.
Posted April 7th, 2009 by Armen Hareyan
