United Press International
April 24 2009

Obama remembers Armenian killings

WASHINGTON, April 24 (UPI) — President Barack Obama avoided the word
"genocide" Friday as he called for "full, frank and just
acknowledgement" of the 1915 massacre of Armenians in Turkey.

On Armenian Remembrance Day, Obama called the massacre "one of the
great atrocities of the 20th century."

"Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were
subsequently massacred or marched to their death in the final days of
the Ottoman Empire," Obama said. "The Meds Yeghern must live on in our
memories, just as it lives on in the hearts of the Armenian people."

The Turkish government acknowledges that Armenians were killed in 1915
but has resisted use of the term "genocide." Four years ago, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan invited the government of Armenia to
participate in a commission to reexamine "the events of 1915."

"My interest remains the achievement of a full, frank and just
acknowledgment of the facts," Obama said.