ARMENIAN REACTION MIXED TO OBAMA’S STATEMENT ON MASSACRES

Journal of Turkish Weekly
April 28 2009

VAN — Armenian Foreign Minister Eduard Nalbandian has said that
Armenians expected U.S. President Barack Obama to refer to the mass
killings of ethnic Armenians nearly 100 years ago as "genocide."

Nalbandian told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service that "both the terms genocide
and Mets Yeghern" — an Armenian term that means "great catastrophe"
— are acceptable and the statement was "a step forward."

While Armenian-American advocacy groups were more critical, the
Armenian Revolutionary Federation party’s Armen Rustamian said Yerevan
is "at least indirectly" responsible for Obama’s language because of
improved Turkish-Armenian relations.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry called Obama’s statement "unbalanced"
and "unacceptable."

In a statement issued on April 24 to mark the 94th anniversary of the
1915-19 massacres of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, Obama disappointed
many Armenians by not using the word "genocide."

In the past he has referred to the events as genocide "supported by
an overwhelming body of historical evidence."