Activists urge Obama to declare ’genocide’

Hurriyet Daily News with wires

About 100 young activists with the opposition Heritage party marched from central Yerevan to the embassy, carrying the flags of 21 countries and international organizations that have recognized the ’genocide’ label.

Obama pledged during his 2008 White House run that he would recognize the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide and has strongly backed U.S. congressional resolutions to that effect. But he avoided using the politically charged terminology during a visit to Turkey earlier this month, instead calling for Armenia and Turkey to build on recent efforts at reconciliation.

To accept the history
University of California, Los Angeles Professor of history Richard Hovhannisian said Armenians in the U.S. and all over the world will be morally satisfied if U.S. President Barack Obama uses the term Genocide in his annual April 24 statement to the U.S. Armenian community, reported the PanArmenian.net.

"As to Turkey itself, I think Turkey will acknowledge its history sooner of later. I know a lot of Turkish intellectuals and scientists who perfectly know that the 1915 events constituted a genocide," Hovhannisian said, adding that he cannot say for sure whether Obama would use the term ’genocide.’