The Second Coming of Samantha Power

But above all, she approached the Armenian-American community as the senior policy advisor to the Obama campaign and she presented the candidate as an acknowledger of history and she assured the American-Armenian community in a video released by the campaign and aimed at the community, that he “can be trusted.”

Mr. Obama’s earlier pronouncements about the issue, compounded with Samantha Power’s credibility, already generated by her book, made many in the community to cast their ballots for him. As a Senator, Obama had stated that he “firmly held the conviction that the Armenian Genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely-documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. As a senator I strongly support the passage of the Armenian Genocide Resolution (HR 106 and S Resolution 106) and as president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide.”

Those statements certainly garnered a considerable number of Armenian votes, to be followed by a terrible disappointment. For eight years in a row, President Obama issued statements on the Armenian Genocide, deliberately avoiding the term “genocide.” Although to be fair, we need to state that Obama bravely made a reference in his speech on the floor of the Parliament in Turkey that that nation had to face its dark history, when he had so much on his plate about US-Turkish relations.

During those eight years of denial, Power was nowhere to be found when it came to the Armenian community. Personal and media appeals got nowhere; she reemerged last year to appear with Vice President Joe Biden at the Washington National Cathedral in May, on the occasion of the centennial of the Armenian Genocide.

In 2012, President Obama appointed her as the chair of a newly formed body called Atrocities Prevention Board. Contradicting the mission of that board, Power, her emoting about the human condition notwithstanding, was instrumental along with National Security Advisor Susan Rice, in advocating the invasion of Libya and committing the atrocities, including the barbaric assassination of its president, which have practically decimated that country.

The recent resurfacing, or a second coming, as it were, of Power, is all the more interesting.

No one yet knows whether intentionally or inadvertently, she referred once again to the Armenian Genocide on the occasion of a memorial held at Washington’s Holocaust Museum, commemorating Holocaust survivor, writer and philosopher Eli Wiesel. In her tribute to the late Wiesel, she listed “genocide denial against Armenians” among examples of “injustice that persisted during Wiesel’s lifetime post-Holocaust.

Mind you, Power still holds an official position and whatever statement she does make may be considered as anything more than a private opinion.

Case in point is Ambassador John Evans, who was fired by the State Department once he used the word “genocide” in his official position. Power is still the UN ambassador; she may be clearing her conscience or absolving the Obama administration.

Power’s remarks were put to a test at a recent State Department briefing when Deputy Spokesman Mark Toner was asked if there is a departure in the administration from its regular policy on the Armenian Genocide. Toner replied that Power’s remarks “did not reflect any shift in the administration’s policy.”

“To answer your question,” he added, “look at this president, the administration, as have past administrations, have repeatedly … acknowledged that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. And we have also called for a full and frank acknowledgement of the facts that happened around those deaths. And that remains our policy. I don’t want to get into terminology.”

Of course, only terminology counts. Only the use of the term “genocide” has significance, legal and practical consequences and not the escapist euphemisms.

Knowing the fluid nature of politics and the flexibility of politicians’ spines, we may have to be content with whatever political crumbs are thrown our way. And this, as long as we cannot mobilize the entire American-Armenian community as a robust political force.

The true reason for the second coming of Samantha Power remains to be seen.