Adam Schiff 'Gravely Disappointed' With Obama's annual speech on Armenian Genocide
Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead sponsor of the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Resolution in Congress, on Friday released a statement after President Obama did not use the word "genocide" to describe the Armenian Genocide ahead of Sunday's commemoration, according to Asbarez.
"I'm gravely disappointed that President Obama will now leave office without fulfilling his commitment to recognize the Armenian Genocide. For a President who knows the history so well, who spoke so passionately about the genocide as a Senator and Presidential candidate, and who has always championed human rights, the choice of silence and complicity is all the more painfully inexplicable. Remaining silent in an effort to curry favor with Turkey is as morally indefensible as it will be ineffectual," said Schiff.
This week, on the House floor, the Congressman read an open letter addressed to Obama urging him to recognize the Armenian Genocide in his final year in office.
"How many administrations must be intimidated into silence before we realize that it never changes Turkish behavior for the better and only emboldens the increasingly authoritarian regime? Recognition of the Armenian Genocide could have been a proud part of the President's legacy; instead this decision will be just another sad milestone in the struggle to prevent genocide by exposing genocide and its perpetrators," added Schiff.
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."