Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian has responded to an October 13 open letter from the President of the International Association of Genocide Scholars, William Schabas. In the letter, addressed to both Sarkisian and Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Schabas, said: “Acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide must be the starting point of any ‘impartial historical commission,’ not one of its possible conclusions.”
Leveraging Turkey-Armenia Protocols, Erdogan Presses Advantage During DC Visit
Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, having secured at least temporarily, the silence of yet another Administration on the Armenian Genocide, has used his U.S. visit to further press Turkey’s advantage–dramatically escalating his genocide denial rhetoric, reinforcing Turkey’s “Protocols” preconditions for lifting its blockade of Armenia, and attempting to use Ankara’s new found leverage in the Nagorno Karabakh peace process to deliver a pro-Azerbaijani settlement of this conflict, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Obama Hails Protocols as Erdogan Presents Ultimatum
President Barack Obama hailed the Armenia-Turkey protocols and pledged US support for the process as Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erodagan, on the eve of his meeting with the president, issued an ultimatum to the White House saying that normalization process could not move forward without an end to the Karabakh conflict.