Nahal Toosi
Two top aides to former President Barack Obama say his
administration failed by not officially declaring that the mass
slaughter of Armenians roughly 100 years ago constituted genocide — a
topic that threatens America’s fragile relationship with Turkey.
"It was a mistake," said Ben Rhodes, who served as a deputy
national security adviser in the Obama administration. "We should have
recognized the Armenian genocide."
"I'm sorry," added Samantha Power, Obama's ambassador to
the United Nations. "I'm sorry that we disappointed so many Armenian
Americans."
The two shared their regrets earlier this week in response
to an audience question during an episode of Pod Save the World, a
podcast hosted by Tommy Vietor, another former Obama aide. Their
statements were unusually frank given the sensitivity of an issue that
has bedeviled U.S. presidents for years.
Historians mark 1915 as the start of the yearslong slaughter
of some 1.5 million Armenians. The genocide took place during the
breakup of the Ottoman Empire, primarily in what is modern-day Turkey,
during and after World War I.
Turkish leaders detest the notion that their country's
founding fathers may have committed genocide, arguing that there was no
organized campaign to murder Armenians. Most major U.S. and Europeans
historians disagree with that, although their opinion is not unanimous.
Turkish leaders have warned for years that official U.S.
recognition of an Armenian genocide would inflict grave harm on their
relationship with Washington, potentially including ending U.S. access
to a military base in southern Turkey. Several European countries
have formally recognized the massacre as a genocide, usually drawing
diplomatic retaliation from Turkey.
Turkey is a NATO member and the U.S. relies on its
cooperation on several Middle East issues, including the fight against
the Islamic State terrorist group.
As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama promised that he
would formally recognize an Armenian genocide as historical fact. But as
president, he passed up multiple chances to do so, including in 2015,
when Armenians marked the 100th anniversary of the atrocities.
"Every year there was a reason not to," Rhodes explained.
"Turkey was vital to some issue that we were dealing with, or there was
some dialogue between Turkey and the Armenian government about the
past."
"Frankly, here's the lesson, I think, going forward: Get it
done the first year, you know, because if you don't it gets harder every
year in a way,” Rhodes added.
Power, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2003 for a book
criticizing America's historical inaction toward genocide and mass
killing, suggested that the administration was "played a little bit" by
Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and others invested in delaying a
genocide declaration.
Erdogan was well-attuned to the U.S. political mood and
calendar, and he and others would hold out the possibility that by
uttering the word "genocide" Obama might derail ongoing attempts at
rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia.
Armenian Americans were bitterly disappointed in Obama's
failure to fulfill his campaign promise. The comments by Rhodes and
Power did little to appease community leaders who felt it was too
little, too late.
"The time for anyone to get this issue right is when they're
in office," said Aram Suren Hamparian, executive director of the
Armenian National Committee of America. "I think that everything they
acknowledge now, they understood then."
Hamparian added that there's another person his community
would like to hear from: "President Obama should explain why he didn't
honor his pledge. And I think he owes us an apology—he owes the American
people an apology."
In the podcast discussion, Power insisted that the former president meant well and always was considering the bigger picture.
Obama is a "consequentialist," Power said. "He always
thought, 'OK, I could feel good, I could meet a campaign promise and
deliver for the Armenian Americans to whom I've made this promise. And
then what? What if it sets back this thing [the diplomatic dialogue]
that could be much more promising?' I think he really believed that it
could have that perverse effect, because he was told that by people who
studied the region and knew the region."
Ultimately, U.S. officials won't be able to keep tip-toeing around the truth of what happened, Power added.
"Just tell the truth. It's safer in the long run," Power said.
"Politico," January 19, 2018 (https://www.politico.com/story/2018/01/19/armenian-genocide-ben-rhodes-samantha-power-obama-349973)
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