OBAMA AVOIDS ‘GENOCIDE’ IN STATEMENT
LAURA ROZEN
Politico.com
APril 25 2010
Calling it one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century, President
Barack Obama has observed the 95th anniversary of Armenian Remembrance
Day but avoided calling the Ottoman era killing of 1.5 million
Armenians genocide.
The president did, however, refer to "Meds Yeghern" or "Great
Catastrophe," which is the Armenian term for what befell the nation
in 1915, the same way "Shoah" is used by some Jewish people to refer
to the Holocaust, one scholar noted.
"On this solemn day of remembrance, we pause to recall that 95
years ago one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century began,"
Obama said in a statement Saturday. "In that dark moment of history,
1.5 million Armenians were massacred or marched to their death in
the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
"I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915,
and my view of that history has not changed," he said. "It is in
all of our interest to see the achievement a full, frank and just
acknowledgment of the facts."
"The Meds Yeghern is a devastating chapter in the history of the
Armenian people, and we must keep its memory alive in honor of those
who were murdered and so that we do not repeat the grave mistakes of
the past," Obama said.
Obama’s use of Meds Yeghern "is an elegant dodge to avoid using the
‘G-word,’ but the substance of what he states about what happened
gives no comfort to those who cling to the Turkish official version,"
said Harvard University’s Andras Riedlmayer.
Still, the Armenian American lobby group, the Armenian National
Committee of America, rapped Obama in a statement for "disgraceful
capitulation to Turkey’s threats" and for "offering euphemisms and
evasive terminology to characterize this crime against humanity."