Jump to content


Photo
- - - - -

Sev lied, Again?


  • Please log in to reply
8 replies to this topic

#1 onjig

onjig

    Veteran

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 1,650 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Ranch in Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Ranch in Nevada
  • Interests:Family, Armenia, Armenians,skiing, crop, too much to list.

Posted 21 April 2016 - 09:24 PM

Obama will break Armenian genocide promise (again)
April 21, 2016
 

Breaking a campaign promise, President Obama won’t use the term “genocide” on Armenian Remembrance Day. (Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP)

For the eighth and final time, President Obama this year will break his unambiguous 2008 campaign promise to declare that the mass killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 and 1916 amounted to “genocide,” a leading Armenian-American activist told Yahoo News on Thursday.

According to the U.S. Holocaust Museum, at least 664,000 and perhaps as many as 1.2 million Armenians “died in massacres, in individual killings, or as a consequence of systematic ill-treatment, exposure, starvation and disease.”

But officially designating the Ottoman Turks’ actions as “genocide” would have deeply angered Turkey, a NATO ally and a pivotal player in the coalition Obama has assembled to wage war on the Islamic State in neighboring Syria. Turkish governments have sharply disputed the figures of Armenian dead and categorically rejected the “genocide” label.

Aram Hamparian, executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, told Yahoo News shortly after a briefing from Obama aides at the White House that the president would once again stop short of using the term “genocide” in his annual statement about the tragedy.

“We took from today’s meeting at the White House that the president will end his tenure in office as he began it, caving in to Turkish pressure and betraying his own promise to properly recognize the Armenian genocide,” Hamparian said by telephone.

Hamparian told Yahoo that Obama’s annual statement, usually issued on April 24, was not finished yet but that the officials were very clear that it would not deviate from past years in which he has shunned the term “genocide.” White House officials declined to comment.

Hamparian said this year’s decision carried a special sting because the Obama administration recently applied the “genocide” label to atrocities carried out by the Islamic State, also known as ISIS.

“There’s absolutely no excuse” to withhold the same designation in the Armenian case, he said.

As a senator, Obama supported but did not co-sponsor a 2007 resolution calling for the use of the term “genocide” when discussing the Armenian tragedy. (Hillary Clinton, then a senator, co-sponsored the measure. As secretary of state, however, she did not use the term. Aides to her presidential campaign did not return emails seeking her current position.)

And when he was running for the presidency in 2008, Obama could hardly have been clearer.

“My firmly held conviction [is] 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,” he said in a statement. “As president I will recognize the Armenian genocide.”

Once in office, however, Obama’s grip on that conviction apparently loosened, and he joined other presidents like George W. Bush in saying one thing during the campaign and another from the Oval Office.

In 2015, the 100th anniversary of the tragic events, Obama’s statement referred to “Meds Yeghern,” Armenian for “the great calamity.” He also included a reference to Raphael Lemkin, the Polish-Jewish lawyer who coined the term “genocide” during World War II.

Pope Francis referred to the same events as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” In 1981, then president Ronald Reagan referred to “the genocide of the Armenians.”

Forty-three U.S. states have recognized the Armenian genocide. Twenty-four countries and the European Parliament have done so as well.

https://www.yahoo.co...146.html?ref=gs



#2 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 22 April 2016 - 10:59 AM

Same empty talk, different year!

Obama stops short of calling Armenian killings genocide

18:45, 22 Apr 2016
Siranush Ghazanchyan

US President Barack Obama on Friday marked the anniversary of the
Ottoman Turks’ massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915, but once
again stopped short of labeling it a genocide. The statement released
by the White House reads:

“Today we solemnly reflect on the first mass atrocity of the 20th
century—the Armenian Meds Yeghern—when one and a half million Armenian
people were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths in the
final days of the Ottoman empire.

As we honor the memory of those who suffered during the dark days
beginning in 1915—and commit to learn from this tragedy so it may
never be repeated—we also pay tribute to those who sought to come to
their aid. One such individual was U.S. Ambassador Henry Morgenthau,
Sr., who voiced alarm both within the U.S. government and with Ottoman
leaders in an attempt to halt the violence. Voices like Morgenthau’s
continue to be essential to the mission of atrocity prevention, and
his legacy shaped the later work of human rights champions such as
Raphael Lemkin, who helped bring about the first United Nations human
rights treaty.

This is also a moment to acknowledge the remarkable resiliency of the
Armenian people and their tremendous contributions both to the
international community as well as to American society. We recall the
thousands of Armenian refugees who decades ago began new lives in the
United States, forming a community that has enormously advanced the
vitality of this nation and risen to prominence and distinction across
a wide range of endeavors. At a moment of regional turmoil to
Armenia’s south, we also thank the people of Armenia for opening their
arms to Syrian refugees, welcoming nearly 17,000 into their country.

As we look from the past to the future, we continue to underscore the
importance of historical remembrance as a tool of prevention, as we
call for a full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts, which
would serve the interests of all concerned. I have consistently
stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not
changed. I have also seen that peoples and nations grow stronger, and
build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by
acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past. We
continue to welcome the expression of views by those who have sought
to shed new light into the darkness of the past, from Turkish and
Armenian historians to Pope Francis.‎

Today we stand with the Armenian people throughout the world in
recalling the horror of the Meds Yeghern and reaffirm our ongoing
commitment to a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Armenia.”

https://urldefense.p...nK7kdAxL66Gw&e=

 

 



#3 MosJan

MosJan

    Էլի ԼաՎա

  • Admin
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 31,196 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:My Little Armenia

Posted 22 April 2016 - 12:15 PM

:angryfire:



#4 onjig

onjig

    Veteran

  • Members
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 1,650 posts
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Ranch in Sierra Nevada Mountains, California, Ranch in Nevada
  • Interests:Family, Armenia, Armenians,skiing, crop, too much to list.

Posted 22 April 2016 - 07:35 PM

Well, he was raised a Muslim, who's he gona side with!



#5 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 23 April 2016 - 07:30 AM

Obama Bows to Turkish Genocide Denial as Erdogan Calls for War on Armenia

© AFP 2016/ BERK OZKAN / POOL
MIDDLE EAST
23:42 22.04.2016(updated 01:04 23.04.2016)

President Obama broke a campaign promise in refusing to honor the
genocide of 1.5 million Armenians so as not to anger Erdogan, his
dictatorial, terror sponsoring counterpart.

On Friday, US President Barack Obama declined to call the systematic
extermination of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 a genocide, breaking a
key campaign promise in the final year of his presidency.

© REUTERS/ JOSHUA ROBERTS
Epic Fail: Erdogan's Visit to Washington 'Ultimately Reduces Turkey's
Image to Nothing'

Sunday April 24 marks Armenian Remembrance Day, commemorating the
suffering created by the first genocide of the 20th century. The
ethnic cleansing and brutality culminated in the death march of over
one million Armenians, accompanied by Turkish soldiers who denied the
Armenians food and water, mercilessly beating to death those who could
not keep up with the march, and systematically raping women.

The Armenians taken on the death march were forced to walk naked under
the hot sun until they died on the road from exhaustion and
dehydration. Over 75 percent of the Armenians taken on the marches
died and those who survived the march were abandoned in the desert,
thrown off cliffs, burned alive, or drowned.

There is broad historical consensus that the 1915 ethnic cleansing
constituted genocide. The Armenian population at the time of the
atrocity was some 2 million, meaning that only 25% of the country’s
inhabitants survived or escaped the slaughter.

© AP PHOTO/ FRANCOIS LENOIR
Deal With the Devil: Turkey’s Erdogan Threatens EU Over Recent Criticism

Nazi leader Adolf Hitler justified the extermination of Europe’s
Jewish population by referencing the Ottoman Empire’s savage genocide
of the Armenians. On August 22, 1939, Hitler proclaimed "Who, after
all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?"

As a candidate in 2008, President Obama understood the importance of
acknowledging genocide, to signal to the world’s despots that
atrocities will not be tolerated.

On January 19, 2008, Obama said, "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."

© AP PHOTO/ MURAT CETINMUHURDAR
Bowing to Sultan: Erdogan Imposing His Will, Values on 'Pliable Europe'

Nonetheless, with one last opportunity to identify a historical truth
and properly honor the suffering of an entire people, President Obama
once again joined a chorus of deniers, embracing what he once called
an untenable policy, and sending a direct message to his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan that the US endorses his plans to
kill dissenting ethnic minorities to recreate his version of the
Ottoman Empire.

That message to Erdogan comes at a troubling time, as the once stable
Turkish democracy creeps towards an undemocratic theocracy sponsoring
and supporting terrorism throughout the region. In recent months,
Erdogan’s regime has systematically imprisoned and censored dissenting
voices, has been implicated in a false-flag sarin gas attack in Syria
in an attempt to bait the US into war, and has been proven to have
engaged in regular arms and oil trade with Daesh terrorists.

Today, Erdogan continues to agitate for another assault upon the
people of Armenia. In recent weeks, the Turkish leader has declared
that the Nagorno-Karabakh region, currently and historically
controlled by the Armenian people, "will one day return to its
original owner – it will be Azerbaijan’s."

© AP PHOTO/ YASIN BULBUL/PRESIDENTIAL PRESS SERVICE
Does Erdogan See Himself as a 21st Century Ottoman Sultan?

Erdogan recently stated that "Turkey is standing side by side with our
brothers in Azerbaijan." Notably, Erdogan sees Azerbaijan as a country
that is culturally and ethnically an extension of the kind of Ottoman
Empire he intends to reconstitute.

On Friday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was in Yerevan where
he denounced Turkey’s rhetoric saying, "These were not appeals for
peace but for war."

At a time when Armenians are once again threatened by the specter of
Turkish violence, President Obama bowed to the would-be sultan
Erdogan, refusing to decry a genocide, while Russian officials send a
stern message that such horrors must never happen again.

Read more:
https://urldefense.p...DbVy2Mqzddf8&e=
 



#6 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 23 April 2016 - 07:40 AM

Unlike the liar!

Canada’s Trudeau Stays True to Genocide Recognition

22/4/16

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

OTTAWA—In his inaugural year in office, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
released a statement commemorating the 101st anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide. In a statement dated April 24, 2016 which he shared
with the Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC), Prime Minister
Trudeau recalls resolutions of both the Senate and the House of
Commons recognizing the Armenian Genocide and states that “[Canadians]
preserve the memory of those who lost their lives, and those who
suffered, during this genocide and pay our deepest respects to their
descendants, including those who now call Canada home.”


“We are encouraged to see that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is
holding true to Canada’s commitment to condemn acts of genocide,
including the Armenian Genocide,” stated ANCC President Dr. Girair
Basmadjian. “While the Prime Minister’s message reaffirms the Canadian
government’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide and the need to
prevent future genocides, it fails to condemn successive Turkish
governments that perpetrated the Armenian Genocide between 1915 and
1923, nor does it condemn the ongoing denial campaign by the Republic
of Turkey,” concluded Basmadjian.

The ANCC believes firmly that “Canada’s back” and as a world leader in
promoting and protecting human rights and democratic values in other
states should help Turkey acknowledge its past by condemning all forms
of denial. The ANCC and the Armenians who have chosen Canada as home
will continue to work with our government and elected representatives
throughout Canada to ensure that future statements include
condemnation of any denial by successive Turkish governments.

On the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the Canadian
Parliament designated April as Genocide Remembrance, Condemnation and
Prevention Month and April 24 as Armenian Genocide Memorial Day. On
the 101st anniversary, the Prime Minister’s statement is an important
part of the Canadian government’s commitment to remember and condemn
past genocides and work to prevent future genocides.

The ANCC is the largest and the most influential Armenian-Canadian
grassroots human rights organization. Working in coordination with a
network of offices, chapters, and supporters throughout Canada and
affiliated organizations around the world, the ANCC actively advances
the concerns of the Armenian-Canadian community on a broad range of
issues and works to eliminate abuses of human rights throughout Canada
and the world.

https://urldefense.p...cfxAaCqh24OU&e=

 

 



#7 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 23 April 2016 - 07:52 AM

Kiro Manoyan: Barack Obama's obscure address was insulting for
Armenians and for him too

by Nana Martirosyan

Saturday, April 23, 16:26

Barack Obama's obscure address timed to the 101st mourning anniversary
of the Armenian Genocide was insulting for Armenians and for him too,
Kiro Manoyan, Head of the ARF-D Bureau's Hay Dat and Political Affairs
Office, told ArmInfo.

"Apparently, he is not happy for having to use the wording 'Medz
Yeghern' (the Armenian equivalent of genocide) instead of the term
'genocide' and having to speak on behind of the citizen Barack Oama,
not the president of the United States. It is disrespectful not only
for him, but for us too. Such a stand is not clear, considering that
Ankara will anyway come out with a note of protest and his words will
become a reason for criticism," Manoyan said.

Manoyan believes that the U.S. Armenians should exert efforts to
achieve that the next president dares to qualify what had happened in
Ottoman Turkey as 'genocide.' "One cannot say that the United States
has not recognized the Genocide, as most of the States have done it.
In addition, a big part the American public knows about the Genocide
and has its stand on it," he said. Kiro Manoyan said that the Hay Dat
Office has already started voicing the issue of reparation, return of
the lands belonging to the Armenian Church in Turkey.

To recall, U.S. President Barack Obama made yesterday annual statement
to the Armenian nation related to the anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide in Ottoman Empire. As it was anticipated Obama has once again
broken his unambiguous 2008 campaign promise to declare that the mass
killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks in 1915 amounted
to "genocide". However, even such obscure statement of the U.S.
President sparked discontent in Ankara. Foreign Ministry of Turkey
came out with a statement wherein it called U.S. President Obama's
statement of 22 April 2016 "yet another example of the assessments on
the sufferings endured under the circumstances of the First World War
on the basis of a one-sided narrative." In this context, the ministry
calls upon the U.S. Administration "to adopt an objective, prudent
and constructive approach, which takes the sufferings of all sides
into consideration, by evaluating the historical realities on the
basis of a just memory."

https://urldefense.p...AeXPidkpbZSk&e=



#8 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 26 April 2016 - 11:52 AM

We have again witnessed Barack Obama’s eloquent casuistry regarding
the Armenian Genocide

Lragir.am
Politics - 26 April 2016, 17:13

Related

George Clooney: What Happened with Armenian People was Genocide

George Clooney Has Arrived in Armenia

Charles Aznavour Has Arrived in Armenia

Serj Tankian's Music to Aurora

In recent days we have again witnessed Barack Obama’s eloquent
casuistry regarding the Armenian Genocide. Barack Obama, inspired by
Martin Luther King, has challenged people to judge others based on the
content of their character. How, one wonders, would Martin Luther King
judge Barack Obama? I fear the judgment would be harsh. Who could
listen to Obama - a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize - with any
confidence that his words reflected anything other than expediency?
Who could believe that the US is credible in its pronouncements?

Yet, some would defend Obama by citing American geopolitical interests
and the importance of Turkey as an ally. And certainly this is the
motive for the policy.

But it is wrong to confuse explanation with justification.

Even on the grounds of realpolitik, though, the policy has failed.

What, one must ask, has the US gained by its appeasement?

The dream of a more liberal and Western-friendly Turkey is certainly
intoxicating, but there is scant evidence that this is becoming a
reality or that US policy over decades has done anything to promote
this change.

There is not space here to catalog the failures. But a list beginning
from Turkey’s attack on the Kurds following the first Gulf War and
ending with the recent deterioration of political liberties within
Turkey would be a start. And so the tail has been wagging the dog. The
blackmail should stop. If Obama used the word “genocide,” the American
ambassador in Turkey would be expelled for a week.

It would behoove us to heed King’s words: “The day we see the truth
and cease to speak is the day we begin to die.”

Jim Teepen is an American university instructor in Armenia. He is a
graduate of Brown University with a master's degree from Columbia
University.

- See more at:
https://urldefense.p...oVacEgk1nGKM&e=



#9 Yervant1

Yervant1

    The True North!

  • Super Moderator
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • 21,603 posts
  • Gender:Male

Posted 28 April 2016 - 09:53 AM

Obama’s Annual April 24 Statement Is Political Failure And Breach Of
Constitutional Duty

April 28, 2016

Seto Boyadjian, Esq.

Last week, on April 23, President Barack Obama issued his annual
“Armenian Remembrance Day” statement. This was his last statement in
his final year in office as President. This was also his last chance
to take a courageous stand on his erstwhile conviction that what
happened to Armenians in 1915 was GENOCIDE.

The statement now serves as a monument to Obama’s political failure
on the issue of Armenian Genocide. Sadly, the statement also serves
as a manifestation of Obama’s breach of his duty under the U.S.
Constitution.

In his statement Obama invites Americans to reflect on the “first
mass atrocity of the 20th century”. But he is adamant in not using the
correct terminology of this “mass atrocity” – i.e. Armenian Genocide.
However, he hastily reminds us, that “I have consistently stated my
own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed.” For
the past eight years in office, this worn-out cliché has become the
symbol of Obama's double-talk and double-standard when it comes to the
Armenian Genocide.

In this context, Obama’s statement is a political and moral failure,
because now he has joined the ranks of Armenian Genocide deniers. In
Obama’s case, the only difference with his denial is that it is a
denial by non-denial.

Regrettably, Obama’s denial also causes a detrimental impact on the
safety, security and survival of Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh. Obama
insists to “reaffirm our ongoing commitment to a democratic, peaceful,
and prosperous Armenia.” Obama’s commitment is as hollow as a
sounding-brass, because: 1) when he remains silent on the Armenian
Genocide, 2) when he encourages Turkey as it threatens and blockades
Armenia, and 3) when he shows indifference toward the ongoing
Azerbaijani aggression, Obama only emboldens Ilham Alyev and
Azerbaijan who, with Turkey’s blessing and participation, are bent to
“finish” what Ottoman Turks began against the Armenian nation in 1915.
Such a course paves the way to Genocide in the making. Alas, President
Obama’s denial by non-denial leads our country into becoming an
accessory in that criminal process.

On the home front, Obama’s statement smacks of serious contravention
of a President’s constitutional responsibility. Adding a new contour
to his euphemism, Obama hails Raphael Lemkin as a “human rights
champion”, who “helped bring about the first United Nations human
rights treaty.” Obama and his advisors at the National Security
Council and the State Department know far too well that Rapahel Lemkin
was not a mere “human rights champion” and that the Genocide
Convention is not a mere “human rights treaty”.

Raphael Lemkin coined the term ‘genocide’ in 1944 to describe the
massacre of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire. He described the crime of
Genocide as the “systematic destruction of a whole national, racial or
religious groups. The sort of thing that Hitler did to the Jews and
the Turks did to the Armenians.” He defined this crime in terms of
international law and worked relentlessly for its passage by the
United Nations. In 1948, the U.N. unanimously adopted this law titled
as the Genocide Convention. During the U.N. deliberations, the Ottoman
massacres of the Armenians and the Nazi massacres of the Jews were
considered as precedents to the law on Genocide.

Under the U.S. Constitution, the executive power is vested in the
President who, among other powers, is responsible for implementing and
enforcing the laws enacted by Congress. Article II of the Constitution
entrusts the President with the responsibility to execute and enforce
the laws created by Congress.

From the perspective of American jurisprudence, the Armenian Genocide
is a legal issue. More often than not this fact is overlooked. The
Armenian Genocide relates to an international crime codified by the
U.N. as the Genocide Convention.

The U.S. was the first to vote in favor of the U.N. Genocide
Convention. The U.S. government officially reaffirmed the legality of
the Armenian Genocide in its written statement filed with the U.N.
International Court of Justice (ICJ). This statement is incorporated
in the May 28, 1951 ICJ Report titled: "Reservations to the Convention
on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide."

In its official statement, referring to the background for the
adoption of the Genocide Convention, the U.S. government held: “The
Roman persecution of the Christians, the Turkish massacres of
Armenians, the extermination of millions of Jews and Poles by the
Nazis arc outstanding examples of the crime of genocide.” (ICJ Report,
p. 25)

The U.S. government further explained: “…the Genocide Convention is
not an organizational treaty. … It is a short and relatively simple
instrument embodying, it is true, some important compromises, but
consisting essentially of a definition of an international crime,
genocide… Its basic purpose and major commitment is to put an end to
genocide.” (ICJ Report, p. 42)

The foregoing explanations and reservations form the basis of the
U.S. acceptance of the Genocide Convention. As an international
treaty, the U.S. Senate ratified the Genocide Convention in 1986.
During the Senate debates, numerous Senators referred to the Ottoman
massacres of Armenians as Genocide. The full Senate secured the
passage of the ratification resolution by a vote of 83 to 11. Thus,
the U.S. Genocide Convention became the law of the land. By reference
and by the intent of the Senate, the Armenian Genocide is part of the
U.S. Genocide Convention, which is now the law of the land.

To implement this law of the land, in 1988 the Senate passed the U.S.
Genocide Convention and Implementation Act. This Act is now codified
under the title of Genocide in 18 U.S. Code, Section 1091.

The U.S. Government statement to ICJ and the Senate deliberations on
the U.S. Genocide Convention considered the Armenian massacres as
genocide. The legality of the Armenian Genocide cannot be any clearer.
Both the executive and the legislative intent affirmatively agree on
this issue. It is the President’s duty to abide by, execute and
enforce the U.S. Genocide Convention. That duty imposes on the
President to refer to the massacre of Armenians as Genocide.

Obama’s refusal to refer to the “mass atrocity” as Armenian Genocide
is a contravention of the law of the land of our country. Our
President is simply denying the official position of our government on
the U.N. Genocide Convention and the genocide law created by the
Senate. In that process, he is placing himself in violation of U.S.
law.

Simply stated, our President is in breach of his constitutional
responsibility in the execution and enforcement of a law enacted by
U.S. Congress. The argument that the issue is a “political question”
or that it is “preempted by federal power to administer foreign
affairs” should fail as a defense.

The question is: As Americans, what are we to do about our
President’s constitutional breach?

https://urldefense.p...R1z3aNTJj824&e=






0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users