July 30, 2009<\/p>\n
President Barack Obama<\/p>\n
The White House<\/p>\n
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.<\/p>\n
Washington, DC 20500<\/p>\n
Dear Mr. President:<\/p>\n
We write to you with our concerns about Turkish backpedaling on the
\nagreed upon roadmap to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia.<\/p>\n
On April 22, 2009, just two days before the 94th commemoration of the
\nArmenian Genocide, the Department of State released the following
\nstatement:<\/p>\n
The United States welcomes the statement made by Armenia and Turkey on
\nnormalization of their bilateral relations. It has long been and remains
\nthe position of the United States that normalization should take place
\nwithout preconditions and within a reasonable timeframe. We urge Armenia
\nand Turkey to proceed according to the agreed framework and roadmap. We
\nlook forward to working with both governments in support of
\nnormalization, and thus promote peace, security and stability in the
\nwhole region.<\/p>\n
Two days later, instead of recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the
\nAdministration opted to focus on this new roadmap to Armenian-Turkish
\nnormalization. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I also strongly support the efforts by Turkey
\nand Armenia to normalize their bilateral relations,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d you wrote.
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Under Swiss auspices, the two governments have agreed on a
\nframework and roadmap for normalization. I commend this progress, and
\nurge them to fulfill its promise.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
While the Government of Armenia remains committed to this roadmap and On May 13, 2009, Prime Minister Erdogan publically conditioned On June 17, 2009, EU South Caucasus Envoy Peter Semneby said Turkey had It would appear that Turkey, in an effort to block U.S. recognition of Sincerely,<\/p>\n Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Joe Baca (D-CA), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Shelley July 30, 2009 President Barack Obama The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W. Washington, DC 20500 Dear Mr. President: We write to you with our concerns about Turkish backpedaling on the agreed upon roadmap to normalize relations between Turkey and Armenia. On April 22, 2009, just two days before the 94th commemoration of the Armenian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":76351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[145],"class_list":["post-14037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-barack-obama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nhas long offered to establish ties with Turkey without preconditions,
\nTurkey\u00e2\u20acTM<\/sup>s public statements and actions since April 24th stand in
\nsharp contrast to this agreement and undermine U.S. policy that
\nnormalization take place without preconditions.<\/p>\n
\nnormalization of relations with Yerevan on Azerbaijan\u00e2\u20acTM<\/sup>s approval
\nof a future settlement of the Nagorno Karabakh conflict that fully meets
\nBaku\u00e2\u20acTM<\/sup>s satisfaction. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I want to repeat once more that
\nuntil the occupation ends, the border gates [with Armenia] will remain
\nclosed,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Erdogan told the Azeri Parliament.<\/p>\n
\ntaken \u00e2\u20ac\u0153tactical steps backwards\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in the normalization
\nprocess with Armenia.<\/p>\n
\nthe Armenian Genocide, agreed to a roadmap it did not intend to uphold.
\nTherefore, we urge your Administration to separate the issues of
\nnormalization and genocide recognition. We hope that renewed efforts
\nand focused resources from the Administration can be utilized to nurture
\nthe Armenia-Turkey normalization process without preconditions and
\nwithin a reasonable timeframe, and continue to remain strongly
\nsupportive of your stated campaign policy to officially recognize the
\nArmenian Genocide.<\/p>\n
\nBerkley (D-NV), Howard Berman (D-CA), Gus Bilirakis (R-FL), Bruce
\nBraley, (D-IA), John Campbell, (R-CA), Lois Capps (D-CA), Michael
\nCapuano (D-MA), Dennis Cardoza (D-CA), Jim Costa (D-CA), Jerry Costello
\n(D-IL), Joe Courtney (D-CT), Joseph Crowley (D-NY), Peter DeFazio
\n(D-OR), Steve Driehaus (D-OH), Anna Eshoo (D-CA), Chaka Fattah (D-PA),
\nBob Filner (D-CA), Barney Frank (D-MA), Elton Gallegly (R-CA), Scott
\nGarrett (R-NJ), Raul Grijalva (D-AZ), Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Rush Holt
\n(D-NJ), Michael Honda (D-CA), Jesse Jackson, Jr. (D-IL), Patrick Kennedy
\n(D-RI), Dale Kildee (D-MI), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), James Langevin (D-RI),
\nBarbara Lee (D-CA), Sander Levin (D-MI), Daniel Lipinski (D-IL), Frank
\nLoBiondo (R-NJ), Daniel Lungren (R-CA). Stephen Lynch (D-CA), Carolyn
\nMaloney (D-NY), Edward Markey (D-MA), Betty McCollum (D-MN), Thaddeus
\nMcCotter (R-MI), James McGovern (D-MA), Jerry McNerney (D-CA), Candice
\nMiller (R-MI), Walt Minnick (D-ID), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Richard
\nNeal (D-CA), Devin Nunes (R-CA), John Olver (D-MA) Payne, Donald (D-NJ),
\nGary Peters (D-MI), Collin Peterson (D-MN), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Peter
\nRoskam (R-IL), Steven Rothman (D-NJ), Edward Royce (R-CA), Bobby Rush
\n(D-IL) Paul Ryan (R-WI), Loretta Sanchez (D-CA), John Sarbanes (D-MD)
\nJames Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Chris Smith (R-NJ),
\nMark Souder (R-IN), Zack Space (D-OH), Jackie Speier (D-CA), John
\nTierney (D-MA), Dina Titus (D-NV), Paul Tonko (D-NY), Niki Tsongas
\n(D-MA), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Tim Walz (D-MN) Henry Waxman (D-CA),
\nAnthony Weiner (D-NY), Frank Wolf (R-VA), and Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"