Despite Campaign Pledge, President Obama Refuses to Use Word 'Genocide' When Describing Slaughter of Armenians

Just another example of Obama PROVING what I said about him all along. He IS just another politician. Very likeable, very well spoken at times, but, still underneath the chrome, its the same old thing.

He will say whatever he needs to today to whatever group he is addressing to appease them. 3 months from now, he will completely contradict what he says today.

No real change here, certainly nothing new!

as an armenian-american i hoped for the best when Obama made this promise. i cried, when he mentioned the armenians, while in turkey. it wasn't much, but more than we have gotten in a good long time.
the turkish government, wiped the town that my grandparents grew up off the map. it no shows no sign that it once was on armenian land. the name has changed the grave stones are gone, everything is gone. the turkish government will get theirs in the end, karma is a slap in the old face.
i am proud of my heritage, i weep for my ancestors that didn't make it to the states and the horror that those that did make had to face.
our president will get another call for this hye today!

First and foremost, there has always been one and ONLY one Armenian nation ... ONLY one Armenian people ... ONLY one Armenian identity. The Armenian people, civilization, homeland and identity have been around for over 3000 years.

Furthermore, Armenians, be it in Armenia or in the Diaspora, have demonstarted a great degree of INTELLECTUAL apptitude.

Absolutely, there is a TRUE emotional aspect of any rapprochement between Armenia and Turkey by ALL Armenians and rightfully so. Turks have massacred the Armenians and occuped their territory, a well documented fact of history.

This is in stark contrast to the FALSE "insult to Turkishness" which is based on a fabricated history that sees the Turks as victims, and which the Turks have been taught and let to believe by their governments and their hired mercinaries.

Obviously, there are many difficult issues for Turkey and acknowledging their Genocidal behavior, past and present, is only one of those difficulties.

Armenia might be a small landlocked country struggling for survival after 70 years of Soviet domination and a Genocide perpetrated against its people by the Turks before that. Even with all the conspiracies against its existence and survival, it is in the process of building a viable democracy. Of the countries which it neighbors, Armenia has serious issues only with the Turks and Azeris (two faces of the same coin).

Turkey, however, has issues with every country that it borders ... Armenia, Iraq, Iran, Greece, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Syria, not to mention the minorities living in it ... talk about irrational and emotionally unstable existence.

Armenia is an economically poor country with a population of less than 3 million. The population of the Armenian Diaspora, however, is approximately twice the population of Armenia. Moreover, Diaspora Armenians are wealthier than the Armenian government. There is an imbalance. We can say that if Turkey had 140 million abroad in the Turkish Diaspora, and if they were more economically and intellectually powerful than the Turks in Turkey, then Turkish politics would be controlled by the Turkish Diaspora. Armenia Armenians want to open the land borders and normalize relations with Turkey as soon as possible. However, Diaspora Armenians struggle to continue the problems between Turks and Armenians forever, since the identity of Diaspora Armenians is built on problems with Turkey. They think that if the problems are removed, their identity will be assimilated. If the dependence between Armenia and Diaspora can be broken, problems could be solved quickly, but this is very difficult. Diaspora Armenians are even able to vote in Armenian elections. There is an emotional and an irrational dimension in Armenian politics that is the most difficult point for Turkey. The emotional dimension depends on Diaspora Armenians. Because of this, the negotiations between the two countries have been carried out in secret. If open negotiations continue, the Armenian government might collapse. Tashnaks especially think that even establishing dialogue with Turkey is a betrayal to Armenia.
Armenians killed just many Turks no one talks about that do they

So... You are offended he did not use a term in a speech, but he has already admitted that it was a genocide and when questioned about it said "my views did not change."

Ok? Be offended.

To those who are so proud and honored to call Turkey a crucial ally of the United States:

Elazig is just one place where Armenians were killed by Ottoman soldiers and Kurdish tribesmen in the spring and summer of 1915. But because several foreigners were living in the area and recorded what they saw, the killings here were unusually well documented.

One of the foreigners was an American consul, Leslie Davis, who took a trip around Lake Hazar, then known as Lake Golcuk, after the massacres. "Thousands and thousands of Armenians, mostly helpless women and children, were butchered on its shores and barbarously mutilated," he later wrote.

The concrete evidence which support the fact of the Genocide perpetrated by the Turks against the Armenians (as well as so many other people) does not only shame those who so ignorantly and errogantly call Turkey a "crucial" ally ... in fact it puts the existence of Turkey itself into question.

Guess these Armenians Democrats will never learn. I would never trust a man who says "I was 8 years old when Ayers was bombing" or "You can't blame me for the bay of pigs, I was only 3 months old". Anyone who makes excuses to excuse himself is a sign of a weak man.

We have a one-termer on our hands, folks.

"Well I would say that world wide problems trump whatever happened a 100 years ago. I fail to get excited by this issue.

Posted by: Thinking | Apr 24, 2009 8:38:21 PM"

Soooo, 100 years ago is the limit...which of course puts Bush, Iraq, and of course Vietnam well within the target range.

I guess also, that the plight of Native Americans and Latin Americans does not concern you and your Lib friends any longer? So the first 400 years of the 500 years the "Open Veins" book you all were so excited about on this site and elsewhere last week is no longer an issue worth bringing up? So, we will no longer have any problem with celebrating Thanksgiving and Columbus Day?

Glad we got that settled!

See, all it takes is Dear Leader to OK something, either directly or through inaction, no matter how long ago, and the sheep will bleat and follow along in lockstep. Because they're incapable of any criticism of their demigod whatsoever.

The Armenians revolted against the tyrannical and oppressive Turkish rule over THE HISTORICAL ARMENIAN TERRITORIES which lasted over 4 centuries.

Since when did a people's revolt against such tyrannical and barbaric rulers on their own soil justify their extermination.

To draw a historical parallel, the American colonies under the leadership of George Washington (the Father of our country) revolted against the tyrannical rule of the British.

Thank God the British at the time did not go so far as to massacre the colonists for their revolt.

In this, the Turks are really in an unenviable class of their own.

One of premises of the "coining" of the word "Genocide" were the massacres committed by the Turks against the Armenians in 1915.

The Pandering Prince is busy thinking up words to re-define every distasteful event that has ever happened since time began. Don't you just love his new word for Terrorism: "Man Made Disaster?" What a "Jimmy Carter Joke" this doofus is turning out to be. Thank gawd we only have 1,356 days to go before we can boot this amateur out.

I googled it.. the 'G' word was not 'coined' until 1944..

I wonder why the MSM didn't show the angry protests in CA aimed at Obama for breaking this pledge?

The "Statist" Democrat says anything to get elected.

As a U.S. Senator, Mr. Obama bashed then Secretary of State Rice on the issue of the firing of the U.S. Ambassador to Armenia at the time, Mr. Evans, for speaking the truth and calling the attrocities perpetrated by the Turks against the Armenians in 1915 as Genocide.

I wonder, who is going to fire Mr. Obama if and when he uses the word "Genocide".

It seems that the Turks, history's best scavengers, are always lurking in the muddy waters of international politics to persue their Genocidal endeavors.

At the closing years of the Ottomans, they embarked on the extermination of the Armanian people (among others) in Western Armenia whose land they occupied for over 4 centuries.

Fast forward to the closing years of the Soviet Union, their Azeri cousins, thought they could persue the same Genocidal endeavors against the Armenian population in Nagorno-Karabagh and beyond.

This time around the following could not have sounded ever more true:

"If you fool me once then shame on YOU. But if you fool me twice then shame on ME."

Turkish propaganda would want to brand the Armenian-Turkish conflict as a conflict between Christians and Mulims.

That is an absolute falacy.

Throughout its long history, Armenia has been run over and occupied by Arabs (Muslim caliphates) as well as Persians (Zoroasterians as well as Muslims).

None of these have committed any Genocides against the Armenians (civilians, intellectuals, farmers, elderly, women and/or children). Their armies fought wars and battles some they won and some others the Armenians did.

The proof is the flourishing of the Armenian culture in the Arab (majority Muslim)societies such as Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Egypt as well as Persia. However, the same can not be said about the Armenian, or for that matter, any other culture (even Muslim) under the Turkish rule.

Turkish crimes against the Armenians and others under their tyrannical rule should never be justified through the lenses of a Christian-Muslim conflict.

Obama like Bush before him is a worm.

Let's go surfin' now
Everybody's learnin' how
Do some waterboardin' with me!