Ahead of President Barack Obama's trip to Turkey, at a news briefing the White House spokesperson avoided discussing the Armenian Genocide when asked by a reporter to comment on the matter.

Responding to a reporter's query on whether "the President still believe that the Turks committed genocide against the Armenians," White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs, said: "We'll get into that I think later on."

When pressed to comment further, Gibbs said: "I'll leave that for--I can't give away everything in one gaggle, for goodness sakes."

Gibbs explained the trip to Turkey aimed to strengthen an important relationship.

"I mean, again, I think it's to strengthen an important relationship and reach out to--and demonstrate the importance of--their importance in our relationship and, again, issues that we have in common that we want to work on. I mean, look, I think it's an opportunity to probably go also to a country that people may not have expected us to visit on our first trip over here, and I think it's an important signal for the President," explained Gibbs, Asbarez.com reports.