ArmInfo. The Ambassador of US to the United Nations Samantha Power called the events of 1915 as a genocide, Associated Press informs. "The term has long been taboo for U.S. officials, including US President Barak Obama, who have instead talked of the mass atrocity and historical tragedy. But Power appeared to break new ground in describing the event as genocide," Associated Pres mentiones.
The Associated Press reads that at a speech hailing the work of Holocaust survivor and Nobel peace laureate Elie Wiesel, Samantha Power lamented the injustices that continue to this day. Among these, she listed: "Genocide denial against the Armenians." Power didn't elaborate. Those five words risk infuriating Turkey, which has fiercely opposed any genocide reference and whose strategic role as a key American partner and NATO ally in an unstable part of the world has led U.S. officials to exercise extreme caution when referencing the century-old massacre. They're also surprising given Power's status as the nation's second highest-ranked diplomat and what sounded like her implicit criticism of Obama.
When he first ran for president, Obama promised he would recognize the killings as genocide if elected. But he has repeatedly stopped short of doing so. Marking Armenian Remembrance Day in April, Obama called the killings the first mass atrocity of the 20th century and a tragedy that must not be repeated. Kurtis Cooper, Power's spokesman, said the genocide reference came in the context of honoring Wiesel's life and were meant to "convince others to stand up, rather than stand by, in the face of systemic injustice, mass atrocities and genocide like the one he was forced to endure." He said they don't reflect a change in administration policy.
Before entering government, Power was a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who wrote extensively about America's responses to genocide. Officials say she has lobbied hard behind the scenes for Obama to formally recognize the Armenian killings as genocide
Previously this taboo to apply the term of "genocide" in respect to Armenian massacres in 1915, has been broken by John Evans, the US Ambassador to Armenia, who lost for that not only the post but also the diplomatic rank.