Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide




President Obama reminded about his pledge to recognize Armenian Genocide


19.02.2009 14:00 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ POLITIFACT.COM has added Barack Obama Campaign Promise No. 511 to its list of Obama campaign promises.

It reads: "Recognize the Armenian genocide."

"Two years ago, I criticized the Secretary of State for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term ‘genocide’ to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. As President I will recognize the Armenian Genocide," Obama said during his election campaign.

In a note POLITIFACT.COM explains that: "When we started looking for President Obama's campaign promises, we knew we might not find all of them, and we hoped our readers would alert us to promises we had missed. Today we are adding our first promise based on reader feedback: Obama's pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide.

The issue has been a hot-button issue on the world stage because the government of Turkey has objected to the use of the term ‘genocide’ as inaccurate and inflammatory.

A 2007 resolution in the U.S. House of Representatives said the Armenian Genocide was carried out by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, and resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million.

The resolution failed in the face of Bush administration concerns that it would alienate Turkey, which borders Iraq.

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[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Gibbs to the left and Plouffe to the right


Gibbs: Plouffe Not Representing Obama in Azerbaijan


Monday, February 9th, 2009

White House Press Secretary insists Obama's former campaign manager is traveling to the country as a "private citizen" later this week.

Tells reporters Monday: "If the president had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone. It's a longer flight and a shorter call."



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Plouffe to Donate Speaking Fee to Pro-Democracy Groups


FEBRUARY 9, 2009, 8:05 P.M. ET

By GLENN R. SIMPSON

President Barack Obama's former campaign manager intends to give away the fee he received from a paid private speech he made Monday in the oil-rich but authoritarian nation of Azerbaijan.

The speech was arranged by lobbyists working with a group that has ties to the Azerbaijan government, according to people familiar with the matter. But a close associate of David Plouffe said he only learned of their involvement after he had already embarked for the Caspian Sea nation.

Mr. Plouffe now intends to donate his speaking fee, which the associate said is in the range of $50,000, to groups that advocate democratization in the turbulent post-Soviet states of the region around the Caspian and Caucasus mountain range. Mr. Plouffe also plans to share the contents of the speech with opposition groups.

U.S. officials said Mr. Plouffe coordinated his talks with American officials in the region and that his message about the uses of the Internet for democratic organizing advances longstanding U.S. policy. But they added that the Azerbaijan government has long sought to legitimize itself by hosting prominent Americans, often with the help of Washington lobbyists.

The country, in the Caucasus region, is in the midst of a campaign over a referendum set for next month that would amend the constitution to lift term limits on President Ilham Aliyev. Mr. Aliyev assumed the post after the 2003 death of his father Haydar Aliyev, the country's first president after gaining independence.

Azerbaijan is a key U.S. ally but the State Department has also criticized the country for its poor record on human rights and free elections.

Mr. Plouffe holds no U.S. government positions but controls the remnants of Mr. Obama's 2008 campaign organization, which he built and oversaw. His speech at a local university was sponsored by a local nongovernmental organization with ties to the Azerbaijan government.

"I'm here as a private citizen, so all I'm doing is talking about elections, and the Internet and democracy, and to talk about our election," Mr. Plouffe told a reporter from Radio Free Europe who wasn't admitted to the speech.

Mr. Plouffe's appearance in Azerbaijan was arranged by a Washington-based lobbying firm called Bob Lawrence & Associates, according to records and interviews. The company lists Azerbaijan among its clients on its Web site. People with knowledge of the speech said the appearance was arranged by the Lawrence firm through Mr. Plouffe's agent, the Washington Speakers Bureau. A person answering the phone at the Lawrence firm said no one was available for comment. A spokesman for the Washington Speakers Bureau couldn't be reached.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Mr. Plouffe's visit was entirely private. "He's not there at the behest of, and not delivering a message on behalf of, the president of the United States," he said. "If the president had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone."
Mr. Plouffe began offering himself as a public speaker recently through the Washington Speakers Bureau, which on its Web site says the consultants' "fees vary based on event location." The Azerbaijan speech by Mr. Plouffe, according to one person who attended, dealt with using the Internet in elections and he didn't address the country's domestic political issues.

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[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

February 08, 2009
Categories: Barack Obama

Plouffe to Baku



Barack Obama's campaign manager will give a paid speech to "a pro-government NGO and mouthpiece of the president's office" in a post-Soviet autocracy with a major interest in American energy policy, according to a report.

David Plouffe, who remains a key, unpaid advisor to Obama for America, is writing a book and hitting the lucrative speaking tour -- which is a way that a lucky few can make money on government or campaign work without engaging in the compromises that come with lobbying.

But speaking still involves taking in thousands from a range of private groups, as Obama's backers noted of Bill Clinton. And Radio Free Europe reports reports that Plouffe is headed to an oil-rich post-Soviet autocracy, Azerbijan, to give a speech to a group to the pro-government group and to meet with the president, Ilham Aliyev, above, whose father was president before him.

"The visit comes one month before a controversial referendum in Azerbaijan to lift the ban on presidential terms, making it possible for Aliyev to continue to serve as president," Radio Free Europe reports.

According to federal records, the Azerbijani government and government-controlled entities, which have major interests in federal energy policy, employ four lobbying firms in Washington, including the high-powered Livingston Group, which is on a $300,000 annual retainer to "maintain contact...with Members of Congress and their staff, Executive branch officians, and non-governmental organizations."

(h/t Ken Silverstein)


By Ben Smith 04:41 PM

Link

Gibbs to the left and Plouffe to the right


Gibbs: Plouffe Not Representing Obama in Azerbaijan


Monday, February 9th, 2009

White House Press Secretary insists Obama's former campaign manager is traveling to the country as a "private citizen" later this week.

Tells reporters Monday: "If the president had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone. It's a longer flight and a shorter call."

Q Robert, what is -- what is Plouffe doing in Azerbaijan? Is he representing the President in any way, the administration?

MR. GIBBS: No.

Q What is he -- what's the --

MR. GIBBS: Plouffe is a private citizen in Azerbaijan. I honestly don't -- I don't have his itinerary.

Q He's not carrying any message or anything, then?

MR. GIBBS: No, he's a private citizen.

Q Is it weird -- does it send a curious message that he's going to visit one of the world's most famous dictators --

MR. GIBBS: I think what Plouffe is there primarily to do is speak. You'd have to ask David, I don't know.

Q (Inaudible) -- send e-mails for the DNC, on behalf of the DNC and on behalf of Organizing for America. What's the (inaudible)?

MR. GIBBS: Well, I mean, again, he's a private citizen. He's not there at the behest of, and not delivering a message on behalf of, the President of the United States. If the President had a message for Azerbaijan, he'd pick up the phone. It's a longer flight and a shorter call.

Anything else?

Q Thank you.

MR. GIBBS: Unscathed, all right. Thanks, guys.

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Link 2

[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

February 08, 2009
Categories: Barack Obama

Plouffe to Baku



Barack Obama's campaign manager will give a paid speech to "a pro-government NGO and mouthpiece of the president's office" in a post-Soviet autocracy with a major interest in American energy policy, according to a report.

David Plouffe, who remains a key, unpaid advisor to Obama for America, is writing a book and hitting the lucrative speaking tour -- which is a way that a lucky few can make money on government or campaign work without engaging in the compromises that come with lobbying.

But speaking still involves taking in thousands from a range of private groups, as Obama's backers noted of Bill Clinton. And Radio Free Europe reports reports that Plouffe is headed to an oil-rich post-Soviet autocracy, Azerbijan, to give a speech to a group to the pro-government group and to meet with the president, Ilham Aliyev, above, whose father was president before him.

"The visit comes one month before a controversial referendum in Azerbaijan to lift the ban on presidential terms, making it possible for Aliyev to continue to serve as president," Radio Free Europe reports.

According to federal records, the Azerbijani government and government-controlled entities, which have major interests in federal energy policy, employ four lobbying firms in Washington, including the high-powered Livingston Group, which is on a $300,000 annual retainer to "maintain contact...with Members of Congress and their staff, Executive branch officians, and non-governmental organizations."

(h/t Ken Silverstein)


By Ben Smith 04:41 PM

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[Anoush]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Samantha Power is a beautiful girl all the way. She has been a staunch supporter of the Armenian Genocide and she's the one that enlightened Obama of our cause. Great duo indeed.

[Azad]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Samantha Power gets a top White House job, backs Armenian claims

What an excellent choice. This gale is a straight shooter, she will give it back to the turks. I am impressed.

[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide



Samantha Power gets a top White House job, backs Armenian claims


Hurriyet Daily News Online, 31 January 2009

U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Samantha Power to a senior foreign policy job at the White House. Power supports the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents, a move likely to create concern in Turkey.

Officials familiar with the decision told the Associated Press that Obama has tapped Power to be senior director for multilateral affairs at the National Security Council.

Power has resigned from the Obama campaign after calling Hillary Clinton a "monster" and made some pro-Israel activists unhappy with her past criticism of Israel.

Her new post will require close contact and potential travel with the Secretary of State Clinton.

Power is an expert on human rights and foreign policy. She is currently a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government.

She also known as a fierce supporter of the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents.

The issue of 1915 incidents is highly sensitive for Turkey as well as Armenia. Around 300,000 Armenians and at least as many Turks, died in civil strife that emerged when Armenians took up arms, backed by Russia, for independence in eastern Anatolia.

However Armenia, with the backing of the diaspora, claims up to 1.5 million of their kin were slaughtered in orchestrated killings in 1915. The issue remains unsolved as Armenia drags its feet in accepting Turkey's proposal of forming a commission to investigate the claims.


MOST PRO-ARMENIA ADMINISTRATION

The new US administration became the most pro-Armenian claims administration in the history with the appointment of Power, Hurriyet daily reported on Saturday.

Obama had pledged to recognize the Armenian claims regarding the 1915 incidents during the election campaign. Vice President Joseph Biden, Clinton and the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi also support Armenian claims.

Also the new director of CIA, Leon Panetta, also backs the Armenian claims on this highly controversial issue on which the historians and experts are divided.

Hurriyet said it is worried that Obama will use the term "genocide" in his statement on April 24 or a new legislation will be pushed to the Congress to recognize the Armenian claims, such moves likely to spark crisis between Ankara and Washington.

Link

[Alexandros]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Armenian National Committee of America

1711 N Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
Tel. (202) 775-1918 * Fax. (202) 775-5648 * [email protected]

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release ~ 2009-01-17
Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian ~ Tel: (202) 775-1918


ARMENIAN AMERICANS CONGRATULATE OBAMA ON INAUGURATION

Community Leadership Voices Support for President’s Pledge to Recognize Armenian Genocide, Strengthen U.S.-Armenia Relations, and Seek a Fair and Durable Regional Peace in the South Caucasus


WASHINGTON, DC - Armenian American advocacy, civic, religious, charitable, and educational organizations joined together today in congratulating President-Elect Barack Obama on his inauguration and outlining the community’s expectations of the incoming Obama-Biden Administration.

The text of the January 17th letter, delivered today to the Presidential Transition Office, and a listing of the signatories is provided below.


#####



January 17, 2009

The Honorable Barack Obama
The President-elect
Office of the President-elect
Washington, D.C.

Dear Mr. President-Elect:

We are writing, as the collective leadership of Armenian American advocacy, civic, religious, charitable, and educational organizations, to congratulate you on your historic election as President of the United States and to warmly welcome your inauguration to this high office. On behalf of some two million Americans of Armenian heritage, we look forward to working with you and your Administration to end the cycle of genocide, strengthen U.S.-Armenia relations, contribute to Armenia’s economic growth, and work toward a fair and sustainable regional peace.

We have, as a community, long admired your principled commitment to ending genocide, including, of course, the need for urgent efforts to stop the ongoing slaughter in Darfur. As a vital part of the growing genocide-prevention movement, our community looks forward to working with you from the first day of your Administration to end the Darfur Genocide and to help bring peace to this troubled land.

As a community, we have been proud that you have stood with us as we have worked toward Congressional commemoration, Presidential recognition, and Turkish acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide. As you have stated so eloquently and repeatedly, the facts of this crime are undeniable. The Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, as the Turkish government shamefully contends, but rather a widely documented mass crime supported by an overwhelming body of evidence. Confronting this denial represents an obligation for America and the entire international community. Our nation's commitment to the principles of the Genocide Convention, which just last year marked its 60th anniversary, is rooted in America's values and cannot be sincerely upheld in our relations with the rest of the world without an outright recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

Our government must clearly and unequivocally condemn the 1915 crime of race extermination by Ottoman Turkey that, during the course of eight years, killed one and a half million Armenians, emptied vast areas of the Armenian homeland, and inflicted grave material harm to every aspect of the Armenian people's cultural heritage, depriving it, to this day, of its right to exist on its native soil. Sadly, the inevitable consequence of Turkey's refusal to acknowledge this crime has been its inability to adapt to the changing realities in the region. Rather than being a factor for peace, Turkey has actively contributed to increased tension in the South Caucasus. Instead of demonstrating a willingness to honestly confront the past in the spirit of truth and justice, its leaders have sought to pressure other governments to underwrite Turkey's historic guilt. The United States should neither be a hostage to Turkey's fears, nor a victim of its moral failings. For its part, Armenia, which supports international recognition of the Armenian Genocide as a core element of its foreign policy, has called for the normalization of relations with Turkey without any preconditions.

As you have stated on several occasions, America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides. The clarity of your promise is particularly welcome in light of the unfortunate practice of past U.S. Presidents to use, under Turkey's pressure, evasive and euphemistic terminology rather than directly acknowledging the Armenian Genocide. The term, Armenian Genocide, is the only one that can meaningfully be used to characterize the crime committed by Ottoman Turkey. We look forward, in the coming weeks, to your firm and principled leadership in clearly and unambiguously ending the sad chapter of the U.S. Executive Branch’s capitulation to pressure from Turkey.

We are particularly encouraged, in this regard, that you will be joined in your Administration by supporters of Armenian Genocide recognition, among them Vice President-elect Joe Biden, a 35-year champion of this human rights issue, and Secretary of State-designate Hillary Clinton, who, in January of last year, so eloquently stated that, "our common morality and our nation's credibility as a voice for human rights challenge us to ensure that the Armenian Genocide be recognized and remembered by Congress and the President of the United States." Others in your Administration, including incoming Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and CIA Director Leon Panetta have also supported Congressional recognition of the Armenian Genocide. We are also pleased to see that the Congress will be led by two of the most longstanding advocates of the Armenian Genocide Resolution, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, both of whom have repeatedly called for full U.S. recognition of this crime against humanity. We look forward to your leadership with these officials and others in Congress, among them Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman, John Kerry, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman, Howard Berman, to help bring about Congressional recognition of the Armenian Genocide.

We look forward to continuing, over the next four years, the active engagement that we established with you and your leadership team during your service in the U.S. Senate, and more recently during your campaign for the Presidency. Among the issues that will, of course, remain as high priorities on our common agenda will be those that contribute to the growth of U.S.-Armenia relations, Armenia’s economic development, and Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh’s security. We welcome your commitment to expanding bilateral commercial, political, military, and cultural relations, and are eager to work with you to increase U.S.-Armenia trade and investment levels and to expand our development assistance programs, through the FREEDOM Support Act, the Millennium Challenge Account, and other avenues. We place, as well, a very high priority on U.S. leadership in lifting the Turkish and Azerbaijani economic blockades of Armenia and in ending the exclusion of Armenia and Nagorno Karabagh from regional commercial and infrastructure projects.

In terms of ensuring a durable regional peace, we echo your call for a Nagorno Karabagh settlement that respects democracy and self-determination and encourage you to ensure that these principles serve as the pillars of any agreement. As you know, a vital key to peace, in Nagorno Karabagh and around the world, is direct dialogue. For this reason, we encourage elimination of all artificial barriers to U.S.-Nagorno Karabagh contacts, communication, and other means of increasing our level of mutual understanding. With Azerbaijan’s President once again threatening war, as recently as in his New Year’s message, it is more important than ever for the United States to strengthen the current ceasefire, to work through the OSCE process to secure the commitment of all parties to the disavowal of force, and, as a matter of high priority for our government, to take concrete steps to prevent a renewed war in the South Caucasus. Our ability to advance these and our nation’s many other interests in this strategically pivotal region would be substantially enhanced by a concerted effort on the part of our government to expand U.S.-Armenia relations.

Working with you and your White House, Department of State, and Pentagon staffs on all of these issues, we will, as you stated in your remarks this past January 19th, "build, in new and exciting ways, upon the enduring ties and shared values that have bound together the American and Armenian peoples for more than a century."

Thank you for your consideration of the priorities we have raised in this letter and for your years of friendship with the Armenian American community. The enthusiastic and broad-based support the Obama-Biden ticket received from Armenian Americans during the campaign, including endorsements from all our leading civic groups and newspapers, reflects our community's confidence in your leadership and ardent support for the real change that you have pledged in how our government acts on all these issues.

We join together in warmly welcoming your victory and look forward to working with your Administration. In this spirit, we stand ready to meet with you to discuss these issues in greater detail and also to address the challenges facing our nation both at home and abroad.

Sincerely,

Apostolic Exarchate for Armenian Catholics
Armenian Bar Association
Armenian Evangelical Union of North America
Armenian General Benevolent Union
Armenian International Women’s Association
Armenian Missionary Association of America
Armenian National Committee of America
Armenian Relief Society
Armenian Rights Council of America
Armenian Youth Federation
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern U.S.)
Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Western U.S.)
Hamazkayin Armenian Cultural & Education Association
Homenetmen Armenian General Athletic Union
Knights of Vartan
Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Eastern U.S.)
Prelacy of the Armenian Apostolic Church (Western U.S.)
Tekeyan Cultural Association, Inc.
United Armenian Fund
U.S.-Armenia Public Affairs Committee

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[armenianweb]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

Barack Obama :

http://www.dailymotion.com/hayeren/video/x6jd98_sen-barack-obama-discusses-armenian_news

[Anoush]

Re: Obama Recognizes Armenian Genocide

yes, but the recognition is not the end of the road, still a long way to go after
hope our dreams will be materialized when turkey, just like the former ussr or jugoslavia, will implose and cut into pieces

Yes I know, I have hopes that it will because they are not a real nation but a made up one. And also the Kurds are on their backs as well.