Epress.am News from Armenia
RA President press secretary Armen Arzumanyan has denied US Vice-President Joe Biden’s remarks that during Armenia-Turkey negotiations, Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan called him and told him not to recognize the Armenian Genocide during this heated period.
In a now widely circulated video posted on YouTube on Oct. 26, a man speaking to Biden says:
“I’m Armenian, and I want to thank you for the work you did in the Senate. I have a question. I am very involved in the Armenian-American community as you know we’ve been very, very burned. I want to know what is the message that should be given to our community?”
To which the US vice-president responded:
“What you should be giving to your community is that we are not backing off. The Turks have to come to the realization of what the reality is. And what we got to do is, you know, this….the compromise that was going on and being worked at for a while… Tell them that it was the Armenian President that called me and said “Look, do not force this issue now while we are in negotiations. We passed. That’s passed right now, so anyway, it’s um… reality has a way of intruding.”
According to Arzumanyan, Serzh Sargsyan never called Biden and never said such a thing.
“Upon Joe Biden’s request, two phone conversations were held in 2009, during which time the president of the Republic of Armenia did not make the statement attributed to him in the video — either directly or indirectly. On the contrary, in all his public appearances and official meetings, RA President Serzh Sargsyan has emphasized the importance of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide and urged not to justify the delay of recognition with the ongoing negotiations with Turkey. Being confident that the White House has at its disposal all the official records of phone calls by the US vice-president, the RA presidential administration gives its official consent to publicize the recording of aforementioned phone call,” he said