April 24, 2011 - 17:33 AMT
Davutoglu believes Obama should have commemorated Turks in Apr 24 address

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu assessed U.S. President Barack Obama’s traditional April 24 address as a “biased and unsatisfactory.” The Foreign Minister expressed hope that “everyone will learn to understand the grief of its neighbour and share it.”

As the Foreign Minister noted, Obama’s address was “once again based on unilateral view of history.”

“We’d like it if the grief of a whole generation of people could be shared. A grief of those, who, leaving Anatolian lands, headed for Yemen, warred in Sarikamis, Dardanelles, Balkan countries. We’d like for the friendly U.S. to share in the grief of the Turks, suggest another perspective allowing to share in a common grief. We’ll make every effort for the sufferings of people who lived in World War I time be commemorated in accordance with the demands of justice,” TRT-Russian cited Davutoglu as saying.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Saturday marked the anniversary of the massacre of Armenians in Turkey nearly a century ago by calling it a “horrific” slaughter, but once again stopped short of branding it Genocide.

In a written statement, Obama said the 1915 killings of some 1.5 million Armenians represent “one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.” But for the third straight year, he failed to use the word Genocide to describe it.

As a candidate for president, Obama repeatedly vowed to recognize the Armenian Genocide once in office, vowing "a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide." But since 2009, Obama has declined to use the word in the face of furious resistance from Turkey, a key NATO ally.

In his statement this year, Obama said “contested history destabilizes the present and stains the memory of those whose lives were taken.” He said America knows this from the dark chapters in its own history. He praised efforts in Armenia and Turkey "to foster a dialogue that acknowledges their common history.” But Obama confined himself to using the Armenian name for the atrocities, Meds Yeghern, and paying tribute “to the memories of those who perished.” He said his view of what took place hasn't changed since the campaign, adding, “A full, frank, and just acknowledgement of the facts is in all our interests.”