Ruben Safrastyan: Obama excelled his predecessorsApril 25, 2009 - 15:44 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - U.S. President Barack Obama excelled his predecessors in his annual April 24 statement and this fact is welcome, an Armenian professor said. "Obama employed the term Genocide, which is used by Armenians and has no legal power, while Genocide is the term used in international law. Nevertheless, I think progress has been fixed and adoption of the Armenian Genocide resolution will not be opposed by the White House any longer," Ruben Safrastyan, director of the NAS RA Institute of Oriental Studies, told PanARMENIAN.Net At that, he thinks that the joint statement issued by the Armenian and Turkish Foreign Ministries was not the key reason for Obama's not saying 'genocide'. "Turkey is an important ally for U.S. in case with Afghanistan and Iraq. The Armenian-Turkish relations have nothing to do with it," prof. Safrastyan said. Top stories The Armenian Defense Ministry has denied Azerbaijan's accusations of violating the ceasefire. Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan took to social media to thank his Lithuanian counterpart for the contribution. President of the Armenian parliament Alen Simonyan met with the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Milli Majlis Sahiba Gafarova. Achieving stable peace between Armenia and Azerbaijan remains a priority of the OSCE, said Ian Borg. Partner news | POLITICO: Baku lobbying agains detained Karabakh ex-leader abroad Azerbaijan is lobbying agains former Nagorno-Karabakh leader Ruben Vardanyan, according to POLITICO. Armenia named European U18 chess vice-champion The U18 chess team of Armenia won the title of vice-champion of the European Team Championship. Iran says change in presidency won’t affect ties with Armenia Ambassador Mehdi Sobhani made the remarks when speaking to reporters at the Iranian Embassy. Congress draft bill condemns Azerbaijan for Karabakh ethnic cleansing The bill condemns Azerbaijan for perpetrating ethnic cleansing against the Armenian population of Nagorno-Karabakh. |