Les Arméno-Américains et Barack Obama : De l’espoir à la désillusion

Résumé Fr En

In the first part of his professional and political career, Barack Obama was not particularly close to the US Armenian community. It is only after being elected Senator of Illinois and even more during the 2007-2008 presidential campaign that Obama and Armenian-Americans undertook a spectacular rapprochement and that Obama started to be viewed as a major supporter of the Armenians and their quest for the recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States. This rapprochement was symbolized by the fact that some Armenian organizations went as far as supporting Obama during the Democratic Party Primaries. However, once elected, he did not respect his promises to the Armenians and disappointed them for not using the term “genocide” to characterize the 1915 Massacres and for remaining ambivalent concerning the other causes important to the Armenian community. On the contrary, he opted for a line rather similar to that of his predecessors and favored Turkey and its allies, the Armenian lobby’s opponents. The main goal of this article is to understand why and how the relations between the Armenian-Americans and Obama evolved in such a drastic way.