{"id":16414,"date":"2009-12-10T00:33:52","date_gmt":"2009-12-09T22:33:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishforum.com.tr\/en\/content\/?p=16414"},"modified":"2009-12-10T00:38:01","modified_gmt":"2009-12-09T22:38:01","slug":"obama-should-forfeit-his-nobel-prize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2009\/12\/10\/obama-should-forfeit-his-nobel-prize\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Should Forfeit his Nobel Prize"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n
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Until he Tells the Truth on Genocide<\/span><\/div>\n

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By Harut Sassounian<\/span><\/div>\n
Publisher, The California Courier<\/span><\/div>\n
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In his letter of November 20 to Armenian American organizations, Pres. Obama once again played shameful word games with the term genocide. At this point, one has to be incredibly na\u00efve to believe that he is going to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide during the rest of his term in office.<\/span><\/div>\n

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During the presidential campaign, when Sen. Obama was making repeated promises to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, Armenian activists were nervously following the Turkish government\u2019s attempts to use the false pretext of dialogue with Armenia to prevent him from fulfilling his pledge after the election.<\/span><\/div>\n

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In early April, during a press conference in Ankara, when Pres. Obama was asked about his views on the Armenian Genocide, he dodged the question by stating: \u201cMy views are on the record and I have not changed views. What I have been very encouraged by is news that under President Gul\u2019s leadership, you are seeing a series of negotiations, a process in place between Armenia and Turkey to resolve a whole host of longstanding issues, including this one.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Clearly, Presidents Obama and Gul, for their own reasons, were scheming to undermine the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by pushing forward the Armenia-Turkey negotiations. They were joined in this unholy alliance by Russia and the European Union in pressuring Armenia\u2019s leaders, who were only too eager to comply.<\/span><\/div>\n

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This sinister deal was sealed when on the eve of April 24, Armenia and Turkey issued a joint press release announcing a roadmap for reconciliation!<\/span><\/div>\n

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Not surprisingly, in his first April 24 statement, Pres. Obama repeated all the euphemisms and word games for which he had strongly condemned his predecessor, President Bush! Obama used the old and all too familiar denialist terminology of past presidents, such as \u201catrocity,\u201d \u201cmassacre,\u201d \u201cterrible events of 1915,\u201d and most incredibly, \u201cMeds Yeghern\u201d!<\/span><\/div>\n

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In that statement, Pres. Obama used the same evasive answer he gave in Ankara: \u201cI have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed.\u201d Yet, he adamantly persisted in refusing to state what his actual views were.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Furthermore, Pres. Obama urged Armenians and Turks \u201cto address the facts of the past as a part of their efforts to move forward.\u201d He expressed his strong support for their \u201ccourageous and important dialogue\u2026to work through this painful history\u2026\u201d and applauded the Armenian and Turkish governments for accepting \u201ca framework and roadmap for normalization.\u201d<\/span><\/div>\n

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Consequently, Pres. Obama left no doubt that he was going to sacrifice the truth of the \u201cArmenian Genocide\u201d on the altar of an illusory Armenian-Turkish reconciliation, using it as a fig leaf to conceal his erstwhile pledge.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Last month, in a letter to Armenian American organizations, Pres. Obama reconfirmed that his view on \u201cone of the great atrocities of the 20th<\/sup> century\u201d had not changed. Once again, he failed to detail his views! The President was responding to a letter from the AGBU, Armenian Assembly, and Diocese of the Armenian Church of America. The three Armenian organizations had expressed their support for the Armenia-Turkey Protocols and appealed to the White House to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. In his response, Pres. Obama cleverly exploited the expression of support by the Armenian organizations for the reconciliation process, and downplayed his campaign pledge to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide. He reiterated that \u201cthe best way to advance\u2026the just acknowledgment of the facts\u201d is for Armenians and Turks to address the past \u201cas part of their efforts to move forward.\u201d He pledged \u201cto continue to vigorously support the normalization effort in the months ahead.\u201d <\/span>The President was thus using the Protocols to undermine all efforts to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Keeping his pledge on the Armenian Genocide is in Pres. Obama\u2019s own interest, as it would help rehabilitate his moral and political credibility by joining Pres. Reagan and scores of national parliaments, international organizations, and Holocaust and genocide scholars who are already on record confirming the facts of the Armenian Genocide.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Pres. Obama should not be surprised if Armenian-Americans no longer trust him, and do not support him for re-election. Those who play games with genocide should not be rewarded.<\/span><\/div>\n

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Anyone who lacks the courage to stand up for the truth does not deserve a Nobel Peace Prize!<\/span><\/div>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until he Tells the Truth on Genocide By Harut Sassounian Publisher, The California Courier In his letter of November 20 to Armenian American organizations, Pres. Obama once again played shameful word games with the term genocide. At this point, one has to be incredibly na\u00efve to believe that he is going to acknowledge the Armenian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":16415,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[1571,78,120,204,1018,2129],"class_list":["post-16414","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-armenian-question","tag-ahmet-davutoglu","tag-ergenekon","tag-gulen","tag-nagorno-karabakh","tag-recep-tayyip-erdogan","tag-turkey-and-armenia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16414","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=16414"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16414\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16415"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16414"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16414"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16414"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}