Armenian President Asks White House to Release Biden Conversation Records

Posted By Weekly Staff On October 27, 2010
WASHINGTON (A.W.)—The YouTube video of a conversation between an Armenian American activist and Vice-President Joe Biden, in which the latter said that Armenian President Serge Sarkisian had asked him not to recognize the Armenian Genocide on the eve of the signing of the roadmap agreement between Turkey and Armenia, generated a harsh and prompt response from the Armenian President’s office.

Commenting on the YouTube video, Sarkisian’s press secretary Armen Arzumanyan said the president did not call Biden and did not make the statement attributed to him. Arzumanyan invited the White House to release the official records of the conversation.

“Upon Joe Biden’s request, two phone conversations were held in 2009, during which time the president of the Republic of Armenia did not make the statement attributed to him in the video—either directly or indirectly. On the contrary, in all his public speeches and official meetings, President Serge Sarkisian has emphasized the importance of the international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, and urged not to justify the delay of recognition with the ongoing negotiations with Turkey. Being confident that the White House has at its disposal all of the U.S. vice-president’s official records and phone conversations, the RA presidential administration officially gives its agreement to publicize the noted phone conversation records,” he said.

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.”

See the actual Video on Youtube!

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2010/10/27/biden-conversation-records/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+ArmenianWeekly+%28Armenian+Weekly%29

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