Obama Renegs On Another Campaign Promise
Politics — By Jamal Washington on May 2, 2010 at 3:11 pmCandidate Obama and President Obama don’t have very much in common. Obama has broken campaign promises regarding tax increases, earmarks for pork barrel projects, forced health insurance, government transparency, spending cuts, and hiring corporate shills as administration heavies. He recently added yet another entry to his long and growing list of mind-bending reversals.
On 19 January 2008, candidate Obama vowed “I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.” He went on to say “I also share with Armenian Americans — so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors — a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey’s acknowledgment of the Armenian Genocide.”
That seems pretty clear. There is no wiggle room in those statements. Instead of wiggling, Obama simply lied. He has now refused on multiple occasions to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide.
Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, condemned President Obama’s lack of honesty, “Today we join with Armenians in the United States and around the world in voicing our sharp disappointment with the president’s failure to properly condemn and commemorate the Armenian Genocide. Sadly, for the U.S. and worldwide efforts to end the cycle of genocide, he made the wrong choice, allowing Turkey to tighten its gag-rule on American genocide policy.”
The Armenian Genocide was a deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian citizens of the Ottoman Empire during and just after WWI. It was implemented through government policies of wholesale massacres and mass deportations, with the deportations consisting of forced marches under conditions designed to cause the death of the deportees. The total number of Armenian deaths is estimated to have been between one and one and a half million individuals.
2 Comments
How sad, but true, he has let many people down! This is a simple human rights question, speaking the truth about history. If he can’t do that, what is he telling people about his capacities and our standing in the world?
If we are not champions of Human rights, how can we ask other countries to reform and become more democratic?
Modern day Turkey, our so-called “ally” that refused the 4th US infantry during the Iraq war, was founded upon the mass murder of the Armenians, Greeks and Assyrian population. This happened a mere 25 years before the Holocaust and many historians consider the Armenian Genocide a blue print of the Holocaust. Modern day Turkey will never come to terms with it’s genocidal past as it is based mostly on looted land and others wealth. In all fairness to Obama, both Bill Clinton and George W. also promised to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide to only cower and run and hide from that acknowledgment once in office. Imagine denying the Holocaust to appease the Germans? That is what we do for the Turks.