By Asbarez | Thursday, 31 March 2011
Presidents Sarkisian and Calmy-Rey at a Thursday press conference
YEREVAN—President Serzh Sarkisian announced Thursday that he has urged President Barack Obama to use the word Genocide in his annual April 24 address, news sources reported.
“Naturally, our desire has always been and is that in his annual address the president of the United States will make a very explicit evaluation and utter the word genocide,” said Sarkisian, speaking at a joint press conference with visiting Swiss President, Micheline Calmy-Rey, reported RFE/RL. “I have spoken out on more than one occasion and can now say that in the past, I have personally asked the U.S. president to utter that word.”
Sarkisian indicated on Thursday that he thinks Obama may well again stop short of calling the slaughter of more than one million Ottoman Armenians a genocide in his upcoming address. “The best moment is when your desire matches reality. Let’s hope that this will be the case this time,” he said, answering a question from RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
“But if this doesn’t happen, we should not have reason to be upset and must instead fight for that. I would suggest that your editorial staff, your very influential media organization also have a certain role in that endeavor,” he added, referring to RFE/RL’s Armenian service.
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