President Sargsyan Urges Turkey to Honor its Commitments

Washington, DC - with a blizzard that blanketed Washington, DC over the weekend, and more snow predicted for Tuesday and Wednesday, today's meeting scheduled with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the Armenian Assembly of America (Assembly), the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU), the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), the Diocese of the Armenian Church (Western), the Knights of Vartan, and the Armenian National Committee of America, has been postponed, announced the Assembly and AGBU.

Meanwhile, today, Armenia's President, Serzh Sargsyan in a message to his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul urged Turkey to honor its commitments stating that "now the time has come to manifest determination to make [the] next major step and leave to the coming generations a stable and secure region."  

The Assembly and AGBU welcome President Sargsyan's renewed call to Turkey and view the meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as an opportunity to discuss steps in which the U.S. can take to ensure that Turkey lift its blockade and normalize relations with Armenia without preconditions. Considering Turkey's behavior, the timing is even more appropriate for the United States to reaffirm its record of Genocide acknowledgement and honor President Obama's commitment that "America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian Genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides."  The House of Representatives is set to consider the Armenian Genocide Resolution in the House Foreign Affairs Committee on March 4, and with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's support, the Senate should advance the resolution as well.

Late last week, unfortunately, a specious editorial by the Armenian Weekly, about the upcoming meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, not only misrepresented the facts, but unfortunately sowed seeds of division instead of presenting a united front. While the State Department had asked for discussions to consider expanding the meeting to include four more slots, the Armenian Assembly of America and the Armenian National Committee of America/Armenian Revolutionary Federation could not reach consensus on who those additional participants should be or several other matters. To date, the Armenian National Committee of America has not even confirmed whether it will attend or not, regardless of the ultimate configuration of the meeting participants, and has also declined to meet at the Embassy of the Republic of Armenia with all the groups invited prior to the meeting with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.   

The AGBU and Assembly want to be clear: "We would welcome the participation of additional independent voices in the meeting, but do not support the attempt by a political party to enhance its agenda to politicize the process and further polarize the community. Those initially invited are the organizations which had voiced their position at the initiation of the issue of the Protocols and represent a large cross-section of our community. In addition, we should all agree on a common agenda in advance to present a unified front during such a meeting, and avoid the type of posturing and lack of respect with the Secretary of State as displayed during the community meeting with President Sargsyan in New York City last October."

Established in 1906, AGBU (www.agbu.org) is the world's largest non-profit Armenian organization. Headquartered in New York City, AGBU preserves and promotes the Armenian identity and heritage through educational, cultural and humanitarian program, annually touching the lives of some 400,000 Armenians around the world.

Established in 1972, the Armenian Assembly of America (www.aaainc.org) is the largest Washington-based nationwide organization promoting public understanding and awareness of Armenian issues. The Assembly is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt membership organization.

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