Looks like Joe Biden is in the State Department's doghouse for comments he made about the Armenian genocide and Armenia-Turkey protocols. After several days of silence, and just after EurasiaNet went to "press" with a story on the controversy, the US Embassy in Yerevan emailed a statement to reporters saying, essentially, that Biden wasn't telling the truth when he said that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan asked the U.S. to "not force" the touchy issue of recognition of the Armenian genocide. The statement, in full:
The Vice President and President Sargsian spoke twice in April 2009. In these calls, the Vice President told President Sargsian the United States believes that the normalization of relations with Turkey and the opening of borders would provide a path to a better future for Armenia and expressed the support of the United States for his leadership. The Vice President expressed the Obama Administration’s support for a Swiss proposal for a joint Armenia-Turkish statement on progress made toward normalizing relations. President Sargsian did not raise the issue of the content of President Obama’s statement for Armenian Remembrance Day or seek a delay in consideration of House Resolution 252. Instead, the discussions between Vice President Biden and President Sargsian that were recently referenced by the Vice president were about the need to take immediate steps to improve Armenian-Turkish relations. The two leaders agreed that there should be no preconditions to normalizing relations between Armenia and Turkey.
Emphasis added.
The fact that they sent this out at 2 pm on a Friday is telling: Friday afternoon is the traditional Washington time to announce something you don't want to become news.
Below, see the incriminating video for yourself:
Joshua Kucera, a senior correspondent, is Eurasianet's former Turkey/Caucasus editor and has written for the site since 2007.
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