Armenia’s President Allegedly Asked Biden Not to Recognize Genocide
A video showing an Armenian activist talking to Vice-President Joe Biden was posted on YouTube earlier today. On the video, Biden says, “The Turks have to come to the realization of what the reality is.” He also makes the stunning revelation that Armenia’s president called him, asking the Obama Administration to refrain from recognizing the Armenian Genocide on the eve of the roadmap agreement and President Obama’s April 24 statement.
The full text of the exchange between Biden and the activist follows.
Question: “I’m Armenian, and I want to thank you for the work you did in the Senate. I have a question. I am very involved in the Armenian American community and as you know we’ve been…”
Vice-President Biden: “Oh, I know.”
Question: “… we’ve been very, very burned. I want to know what is the message that we should be giving to our community?”
Biden: “What you should be giving to your community is that we are not backing off. The Turks have to come to the realization of what the reality is. And what we got to do is, you know, this, the compromise that was going on and being worked at for a while… Tell them that it was the Armenian President that called me and said ‘Look, do not force this issue now, while we are in negotiations.’ We passed. That’s past right now. So anyway, reality has a way of intruding.”
The president of Armenia needs to be impeached right now.
There’s a proverb in Armenia about people like him. “He who eats lamb with the wolf later cries “alas” with the shepard.”
I watched with great interest “Armenia’s President Asked Biden Not to Recognize Genocide”
There are 4 points to consider here!
1-VP Biden could be pulling a political rabbit from his hat!
2- It could be very true that the Armenian president might have called VP Biden.
3- Before going and bashing the Armenian president and widening the split between the diaspora and the Armenian Republic which is exactly what Davutoghlou & PM Erdoghan are experts with. (There are many examples in history especially while building the Turkish republic).
4- The Armenian Weekly should question officially the Armenian president, for clarification and explanation. Armenian newspapers & media never question our leaders! That includes our political leaders & Armenian organization leaders for their success or their failures! Our Media & press has lost its ability to positively criticize, question and demand answers! They are mere passing news information, or rubber stamping their organizations! With the exceptions of Keghart, Khachig Mouradian & most actively weekly Harut Sassounian!
Missak K
I am enraged. Heads should roll. If this is true, who the hell does the Armenian president think he is? If it’s false, Biden is lying scum. If there is one thing we know about Biden, it is that he has a big mouth. I am inclined to believe this is true.
The following statement was issued today by the press secretary of the presdent:
Responding to the question concerning the video posted on YouTube by an anonymous source this morning which is allegedly ascribed to Joe Biden – Vice President of the United States, the Press Secretary of the President of Armenia Armen Arzumanian made the following statement:
“The President of Armenia has never made calls to the Vice President of the United States Joe Biden. There were two phone calls initiated by the latter in 2009 and during those calls the President of Armenia did not use the expression ascribed to him in the video – directly or indirectly. On the contrary, in all public appearances and during official meetings, the President of Armenia Serzh Sargsyan has been emphasizing the importance of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide and has been urging not to excuse the procrastination of the recognition by the ongoing negotiations with Turkey. Being confident that the White House possesses all the official records of all phone calls made by the Vice President of the United States and his video recordings, the Administration of the President of Armenia gives its official consent to publish the recording of the mentioned phone call.”
It wouldn’t surprise me one bit if the Pres. of Armenia said at some point that it was better not to recognize the Genocide if he thought he could get a deal with the Turks on other issues. Let’s remember that during this negotiation the diaspora was constantly told that they pressed this issue too much – and especially that Armenia had other problems to worry about. Let’s hope the administration has a clue when it comes to Turkey – we should be pressing the issue now anyway. We don’t need to wait for April 24.
Guys, please let’s be critical and not fall for another trap, as Missak said, to further division between Diaspora and RA.
Could it be that this is a fake video made by a Republican hoping to get Armenian-Americans to turn on Democrats in a few days at the election?
We should verify that the video is true by asking where Biden was on 26 October, who this activist is, whether this conversation happened, etc.
i suppport president sargyan. we will have recognition. we all want genocide recognition
So, Biden says that Turks have to recognize the past! Does this also apply to Armenians, or as usual, just us?
Robert, let’s take baby steps. Don’t go all the way back to 1915. Go back to 1993, when Priesident Turgut Ozal threatened to remind Armenians of the “lessons of 1915.” What exactly does that suggest about the hidden secrets your leadership knows?
Absolutely agree with Alex! This may be a trick made by a Republican or by Turks …. Armenians all over the world should stay united, no matter what happens and no matter who says what. Division between Armenia and diaspora is on Turkey’s agenda – we should always remember about this. And one more thing – even IF the president did say this, it’s the president not people of Armenia. I live in Armenia and I say – US should recognize the Armenian Genocide because it happenned and because US claims to be the protector of human rights, democracy …..
Simple: if the armenian president did not make the call and told Biden stop supporting so called genocide issue, why then asking white house open the telephone call records. Sarkissian called and now they are asking to open the record to listen what he said. Clearly this what he said.
Who creates the division besides Sarkissian? Remember during the negotiations? He wanted the whole Diaspora to shut up. He needs to learn about unity. The Diaspora understands politics in the US and has clout and he wanted to pretend that didn’t even matter.
I too am very shocked and sad by the report, but agree with Alex. Need to verify before asking for a head on a platter.
Gee Alex, how about going to the manifesto written by Armenia’s first president! He sure did have a lot to say in his book, didn’t he! BTW, his book is still banned in Armenia. Why do you think that is? the only recourse is to have the historical commission force open the still closed Armenian archives in Yerevan and Boston, and then examine all involved nation’s archives completely to establish the final, unbiased truth! Turkey is on record as saying that she’ll abide by their final decision (no word yet as to what President Sarkissian will do when the outcome is revealed). Can the Armenian diaspora in the US and Europe make the same confident statement? Well?
Robert have you not read ANYTHING published outside of Turkey in the last 95 years? Meticulous authoritative study of Ottoman-Turkish archives, eyewitness accounts, Ottoman court-marshal testimony by leading CUP officials, foreign consular reports, German and Austrian diplomatic correspondence, descriptions of systematic massacre from town to town, ‘provoke, then destroy’ patterns of agitation….?
We could, and have, presented all the evidence under the Sun and you’ll still be parroting “let the historians decide.”
I’ve heard your arguments. You fail to distinguish between Russian-Armenians and Ottoman-Armenians. You fail to realize that the bulk of Armenian ‘rebellion’ was actually Russian-Armenians invading with czarist troops, as was their duty. As one example, Ottoman officials’ post-war testimony reveals that the first deportation orders were given orally in March 1915, well before the Van ‘rebellion’ took place, and that up until this fighting in Van, Armenian villages were being razed.
And by the way, if you like to oversimplify the issue so much as “Armenians were Christian, therefore they rebelled against the Muslim empire,” I can just as easily oversimplify the issue as “The Young Turks were Muslim and therefore killed the Armenians because they were Christian.”
There is a fundamental contradiction in the Turks’ arguments: on the one hand, they say that Armenians never had a majority in any district in eastern Anatolia and thus have no territorial claims there, while on the other hand they say ‘no Armenians were a huge security risk’. If Armenians were so outnumbered, how could they, legally prohibited from bearing arms mind you, have possibly waged ‘civil war’ (Justin McCarthy, what a joke) against an imperial army and its Austrian and German allies which were capable of fighting the Allies for four years?
Robert, don’t insult our intelligence. I understand from your earlier comments on this forum that you lost family during the genocide and I’m sorry for that. I did as well. But that doesn’t change the fact that what occurred was genocide.
To answer your question, I am 110% confident that if Turks bother to read things besides their history textbooks, they will come to the same conclusion reached by the vast majority of world historians, the world’s leading scholars on the Holocaust, the International Association of Genocide Scholars, the International Center for Transitional Justice, the Center for Holocaust Studies in Jerusalem (a museum owned by the state which is/was one of Turkey’s biggest allies), and 30000 brave Turkish intellectuals.
The U.S. Embassy in Armenia responds:
http://armenianweekly.com/2010/10/29/breaking-news-u-s-embassy-in-armenia-comments-on-youtube-video/
We Armenians do not trust Sargsian. Whether he said what Biden claimed, we know Sargsian well enough to know that he COULD have betrayed Armenians on the Genocide issue. It is Sargsian’s corruption and dishonesty that are the real issues. If Sargsian was honest, Biden would never have dared to say what he said.
Biden may or may not be a liar. Sargsian IS a liar.
As with all Washingtonian criminals, the American VP is a liar. The self-destructive peasantry in Armenia’s so-called “opposition” and in the diaspora were quick to disseminate this news, as they do with every other anti-Armenia propaganda that is thrown at them by Western or Turkish intelligence agencies. The White House has more-or-less retracted the VP’s statement. Is our “opposition” courageous enough now to apologize to Mr. Sargsyan? Of course not. For our worldwide peasantry, being in the “opposition” simply means opposing anything and everything our president proposes.
Nevertheless, what clearly stands out to me is the fact that our self-destructive peasantry is more than ready to begin attacking our republic, our political leadership – but when it comes to attacking or criticizing a severely corrupt global criminal entity like Washington they of a sudden becomes nuanced and balanced. An example of this is what the commentator above said: “Biden may or may not be a liar. Sargsian IS a liar.” Another example of our peasantry’s self-destructive behavior is yet another commentator here that suggested Armenians should elect Washingtonian agents Vartan Oskanyan or Raffi Hovanessian as Armenia’s president. The intellectual caliber of Armenians today amazes me.
If Armenians don’t like the way Armenia is being governed today, they should all take a close look at themselves – because any given government on earth is an accurate reflection of its people. If the dying diaspora is a genocide obsessed, disunited and an assimilated mess, if the homeland is a lawless and corrupt pigsty – its not the fault of any given president. Having said that, although its not saying much, President Saregsyan is the best president we have yet had. Under his rule, Armenia’s and Artsakh’s borders have never been safer, Armenia’s role in international politics have never been greater. It was Sargsyan’s administration’s diplomatic skill that forced Ankara to swallow its pan-Turkic pride and sit at the negotiation table with Yerevan. And, thank God, official Yerevan has finally begun distancing itself for the destructive/corrosive effects of Washington’s global empire by firmly entrenching Armenia within Russia’s orbit.
I come to these discussion board to keep reminding myself that we Armenians are Armenia’s greatest obstacle towards progress and stability.