Los Angeles Times: State Department Long Avoided Word "Genocide" out of Deference to Turkey

PanARMENIAN.Net - It is time to stop tiptoeing around the Genocide issue and to accept settled history. Genocide, according to accepted U.N. definition, means "the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group." Armenia is not even a borderline case, says an article titled It Was Genocide in The Los Angeles Times. Punishing an ambassador for speaking honestly about a 90-year-old crime befits a cynical, double-dealing monarchy, not the leader of the free world. The article author touches upon possible recall of US Ambassador to Armenia John Evans, "accusing" him for recognizing the Armenian Genocide in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1923 during a meeting with the Armenian community at Berkley University, California.



«Punishing an ambassador for speaking honestly about a 90-year-old crime befits a cynical, double-dealing monarchy, not the leader of the free world. One day, the country that was founded as a direct repudiation of its Ottoman past will face its history squarely, as part of a long-overdue maturing process. Some day before then, we hope, the State Department will too. Yet the State Department has long avoided the word "genocide," not out of any dispute over history but out of deference to Turkey, whose membership in NATO and location between Europe and Asia make it a strategic ally," The Los Angeles Times writes.