Armenians use Turkey-Sudan tie for recognition
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Ümit Engisoy
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Åžubat 23, 2009 00:00
WASHINGTON - The largest U.S. Armenian group has launched a campaign to urge the administration in Washington and Congress to formally recognize Armenians' claims of "genocide", by using Ankara's developing ties with Sudan.
Washington views the killings of people in the Darfur region of Sudan by militias backed by the Khartoum government as genocide.
The Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, in a weekend statement, accused Turkey and Sudan of establishing an "axis of genocide."Â
The ANCA said it had alerted members of Congress to "the human costs of the emerging axis of genocide" between the Ankara and Khartoum governments.
ANCA said Turkey had been directly selling weapons to Sudan, that Ankara diplomatically supported the Sudanese government's genocide denials and that Turkey was using its U.N. Security Council seat to block anti-genocide efforts. "The genocidal Ankara and Khartoum regimes have grown markedly closer over the past two years, driven by Turkey’s increasingly brazen efforts to undermine the international community’s efforts to isolate Sudan’s genocidal regime," the ANCA said.
Sudanese visit
"In recent weeks, Turkey came under considerable international scrutiny for hosting Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha who during a meeting with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan asked Turkey to use its position in the U.N. Security Council to block any possible attempts to arrest Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on charges of genocide," it said. The ANCA also posted on its Web site a photograph in which President Abdullah Gul was shaking hands with al-Bashir.
The U.S. Armenians' top objective this year is to win U.S. recognition of the 1915 incidents as "genocide".
The Armenian National Committee of America, or ANCA, in a weekend statement, accused Turkey and Sudan of establishing an "axis of genocide."Â
The ANCA said it had alerted members of Congress to "the human costs of the emerging axis of genocide" between the Ankara and Khartoum governments.
ANCA said Turkey had been directly selling weapons to Sudan, that Ankara diplomatically supported the Sudanese government's genocide denials and that Turkey was using its U.N. Security Council seat to block anti-genocide efforts. "The genocidal Ankara and Khartoum regimes have grown markedly closer over the past two years, driven by Turkey’s increasingly brazen efforts to undermine the international community’s efforts to isolate Sudan’s genocidal regime," the ANCA said.
Sudanese visit
"In recent weeks, Turkey came under considerable international scrutiny for hosting Sudanese Vice-President Ali Osman Mohammed Taha who during a meeting with Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan asked Turkey to use its position in the U.N. Security Council to block any possible attempts to arrest Sudanese President Omer al-Bashir on charges of genocide," it said. The ANCA also posted on its Web site a photograph in which President Abdullah Gul was shaking hands with al-Bashir.
The U.S. Armenians' top objective this year is to win U.S. recognition of the 1915 incidents as "genocide".