U.S. Embassy in Yerevan Fails to Acknowledge the Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Council of America (ACA) expressed its disappointment with the U.S. Embassy in Armenia for failing to properly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide in its recent public statement regarding a visit to the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial in Yerevan.
In a social media post, the Embassy stated: “Senior Bureau Official for Europe and Eurasia at @StateDept, Brendan Hanrahan, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Memorial to honor the memory of the victims and lay flowers at the eternal flame.” Nowhere in the message did the Embassy directly recognize the victims as those of the Armenian Genocide.
Tsitsernakaberd is not a generic site of remembrance. It is the sacred national memorial to the 1.5 million Armenians systematically exterminated by the Ottoman Turkish government during the Armenian Genocide of 1915–1923. To omit this truth—especially in an official U.S. government communication—diminishes the meaning of the visit and undermines decades of effort by the Armenian-American community to secure recognition. The United States has formally recognized the Armenian Genocide: both houses of Congress overwhelmingly passed bipartisan resolutions in 2019, and it has been acknowledged as such by previous Presidents.
“For a senior U.S. official to lay flowers at the memorial while failing to acknowledge the genocide by name is more than a missed opportunity; it is a step backward. At a time when Armenia continues to face existential threats, precision of language and moral clarity matter,” stated the ACA. “We call upon the U.S. Embassy in Yerevan, the State Department, and all U.S. government representatives to ensure that the Armenian Genocide is recognized clearly and unequivocally in every official statement, visit, and commemoration. Anything less risks emboldening denial, distorting history, and dishonoring the memory of the victims.”
ACA concluded: “The Armenian Council of America will continue to press for accuracy and accountability in U.S. policy, and we stand with the Armenian people in demanding that the truth of the genocide never be diluted or erased.”
