Armenian Reporter:

Ask your representative to sign the letter on Armenia-Turkey relations

Published: Saturday July 18, 2009

At the bipartisan initiative of Reps. Frank Pallone, Jr. (D.-N.J.), and Mark Kirk (R.-Ill.), the co-chairs of the House Armenian Caucus, and Reps. Adam Schiff (D.-Calif.) and George Radanovich (R.-Calif.), members of Congress are being asked to sign a letter to President Barack Obama on Armenia-Turkey relations.

This is a very important and timely initiative, and Reps. Pallone, Kirk, Schiff, and Radanovich deserve our gratitude for taking it.

Referring to the normalization of relations between Armenia and Turkey and the Armenian Genocide, the letter calls on President Obama "to separate the issues of normalization and genocide recognition."

The authors of the letter note that the State Department on April 22 released a statement welcoming the announcement of Armenia and Turkey that they had agreed on a roadmap toward the normalization of relations. Two days later, on April 24, instead of recognizing the Armenian Genocide, the president opted to focus on the road map.

The authors note that Armenia has remained committed to the roadmap, but Turkey has chosen to "undermine U.S. policy that normalization take place without preconditions." They conclude that Turkey, "in an effort to block U.S. recognition of the Armenian Genocide, agreed to a roadmap it did not intend to uphold."

Members of Congress who sign the letter will be asking the president to proceed with recognizing the Genocide as he promised, and separately continuing to urge Turkey to proceed with normalization of relations with Armenia.

Make a difference: contact your representative in the House and urge him or her to sign this letter. To reach the House switchboard, call 1-202-225–3121.

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