WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Some individuals want Washington to refer to the mass atrocities against Armenians during the First World War by a different name, but the United States stands by its previous approach to acknowledge the event, White House spokesperson Eric Schultz said on Wednesday said that.
“I know there are some who are hoping to hear different language this year and we understand their perspective, even as we believe the approach we’ve taken in previous years remains the right one for acknowledging the past and for our ability to work with these regional partners in the present,” Schultz said.
Armenia and several other countries recognize the atrocities committed by the Ottoman Empire against more than a million Armenians in the First World War as genocide.
US President Barack Obama pledged as a US Senator and presidential candidate to call the death of the Armenians genocide.
After meeting with members of the American-Armenian community on Tuesday, senior White House officials said the President would not call the deaths genocide at the centennial commemoration in Yerevan, Armenia on April 24.
On Tuesday, US National Security Advisor Susan Rice urged Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu in meetings held in Washington, DC to improve relations with Armenia that have been severed for nearly two decades.
Turkey, an important NATO partner for the United States, has lobbied hard to prevent the United States from calling the events of the First World War genocide, and has threatened to curb cooperation should the United States decides otherwise.
