Obama's envoy to UN says 'sorry' that U.S. didn't recognize Genocide

April 24, 2017 - 21:52 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said in a tweet on Monday, April 24 she is very sorry that, "during our time in office, we in the Obama administration did not recognize the Armenian Genocide."

"Thinking of Armenians everywhere on Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day. 102 years ago, Ottoman authorities began a slaughter that would kill 1.5 million," the diplomat said.

"Almost every Armenian-American family was touched in some way by the genocide. Ongoing Turkish denial makes the genocide an open wound."

"I am very sorry that, during our time in office, we in the Obama administration did not recognize the Armenian Genocide," she added in a third tweet.

In 2008, Power urged Armenian Americans to vote for Barack Obama, highlighting the latter's campaign pledge to recognize early 20th century atrocities against Armenians as genocide.

Obama, however, didn't keep that pledge during his eight years in office.

102 years have passed since the beginning of the Armenian Genocide, perpetrated in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923.

Photo. Charles Dharapak/AP

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The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.