Epress.am News from Armenia
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a written response to a letter of protest from the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), refrained from again mischaracterizing the Armenian Genocide as a “matter for historical debate,” but stopped far short of properly characterizing this atrocity as a crime, much less keeping the pledges that both she and US President Barack Obama have made to fully and formally recognize this clear case of genocide, reads a press statement issued by ANCA.
“While we value the willingness of Secretary Clinton to engage with Armenian American voters during this political season, and certainly take note of the fact that she has refrained from repeating her recent highly offensive comments directly calling into question the Armenian Genocide, we remain deeply troubled by her misguided efforts to downgrade an international crime of genocide to a simple bilateral conflict,” said ANCA Chairperson Ken Hachikian.
The ANCA – Clinton exchange was precipitated by a statement Clinton made on Jan. 26 in response to a question regarding the Administration’s refusal to recognize the Armenian Genocide. She said: “This has always been viewed, and I think properly so, as a matter of historical debate.”
On Febr. 9, ANCA sent a six-page letter featuring ten direct questions to Clinton about this and prior Administrations’ attempts to appease Ankara by compromising America’s stand on a fundamental issue of human rights. In that letter, ANCA Chairperson Ken Hachikian explained that “honest and open responses to these questions, in addition to bringing a badly needed measure of transparency to American policy on the Armenian Genocide, would also serve as a meaningful foundation for a reasoned discourse among government and civil society stakeholders about ending the era of the United States’ complicity in Turkey’s denials.” He added that: “More broadly, full and formal recognition of this crime — representing, as it would, a very public rejection of Ankara’s efforts to impose a gag-rule on America — would represent a meaningful step toward stopping the worldwide cycle of genocide that continues to plague humanity.”
In her Mar. 1 response, Clinton noted that in 2011, “President Obama memorialized the 1.5 million Armenians who, in 1915, were massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire, resulting in one of the worst atrocities of the twentieth century.” She went on to cite her visit to Armenia’s Genocide memorial, Tsitsernakaberd, “as a sign of respect for those who lost their lives during this tragedy.” The Secretary then, abdicating both America’s and the international community’s moral and legal responsibilities, sought to place the onus solely on Turkey and Armenia “to work together to address their shared history,” side-stepping repeated pledges, in 2008 and prior, by President Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary Clinton, herself, calling for full and formal US affirmation and commemoration of this crime.
Clinton was equally evasive in responding to questions from Armenian Genocide Resolution (H.Res.304) lead cosponsor, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA), during her testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Foreign Operations last week. Schiff asked, “Is there any question that you have that the facts of that tragic period between 1915 and 1923 constitute genocide,” and “Do you have any different view on the subject now than you did as a state — as a US Senator?”
Clinton, ANCA reports, resorted to euphemisms such as “terrible events,” and “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century,” stopping short of her clear statements as Senator in 2008, when she affirmed that, “the horrible events perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire against Armenians constitute a clear case of genocide.”