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Azerbaijani politicians and political analysts comment on Barack Obamaâ€™s 24 April statement

25 April 2009 12:25 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Elnur Mammadli â€“ APA. â€œI think that U.S. President Barack Obamaâ€™s opinion on the â€œArmenian genocideâ€ is unscientific approach to history. Such political approaches to history do not serve peace,â€ chairman of Musavat Party Isa Gambar told APA. He said the happenings, which caused the tragedy of people of various nations during the World War I, are introduced in the West as the tragedy or even genocide of Armenians.
â€œPresident Obama says in his statement â€œThe contributions that Armenians have made over the last ninety-four years stand as a testament to the talent, dynamism and resilience of the Armenian peopleâ€. Does this â€œtestamentâ€ also cover the fate of tens of thousands of Azerbaijanis killed by them in 1918? Does the â€œtestamentâ€ covers ethnic cleansing policy carried by Armenians in Armenia, occupation of Azerbaijani territories, ethnic cleansing policy in Karabakh, Khojaly genocide? I think President Obama and other politicians would rather think over these questions?â€ he said.

Member of Political Board of New Azerbaijan Party (YAP) Aydin Mirzazadeh noted that Barack Obama had been expected to make sensational statement on April 24. He said Obamaâ€™s words during the election campaign were natural.
â€œBut when in power attention is paid to the stateâ€™s national interests. It is important for the US to preserve the relations with Turkey. American society knows that genocide claims are Armeniansâ€™ lies. I did not see unusual and sever views in Obamaâ€™s speech. There is nothing unusual in his calling the events of 1915 great tragedy. It should not be regarded only as an opinion favoring Armenians. Several expressions used by Obama to the advantage of Armenians are of diplomatic character. I think Armenians will not achieve their goal,â€ he said.

Chairman of Azerbaijan Democratic Party Serdar Jalaloglu said when speaking about â€œArmenian genocideâ€, one should speak about the massacres committed by America against Hindus, and by France against Algeria.
â€œRaising of â€œArmenian genocideâ€ in the world is Christian fanaticism and aims to exert pressure on Turkey and revenge for 400-year policy of Ottoman Empire in Europe. The present position of the US is vague. Such claims do not serve security and peace in the world, on the contrary pave the way for mutual claims among states and peoples. It can become a precedent and other peoples may raise other claims. US and other countriesâ€™ supporting Armenians is not in line with their position and status in the world,â€ he said.

According to political scientist Mubariz Ahmadoghlu, US President Bakak Obama does not understand the importance of Turkey and Turkeyâ€™s important role in Middle East policy. â€œObama approaches Turkey as a tool and compares Turkey with 70 million population with 8 million Armenians in the world. However, if Turkey takes resolute steps, it will take even less than a year that Obama will understand what mistakes he made in his speech. Only fifty percent of archives have been opened in Armenia and sixty percent of them were studied. In general only 30 percent of documents on genocide claims have been studied so far. If Obama supports such opinion basing on 30 percent of archive materials, it shows that he is a man of strawâ€.

To political scientist Ilgar Mammadov, Obamaâ€™s calling 1915 events as â€œgreat tragedyâ€ is not a word expressed against Turkey: â€œOf course, Turks, Armenians and others lost their lives on that time, because of World War I. Itâ€™s a positive case that Obama did not use the term â€œgenocideâ€.