Obama does not differ from presidents criticized by him for non-recognition of Genocide

April 24, 2010 - 22:51 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The non-usage of the word genocide by the U.S. President is a failure to honor his own pledge, Head of the ARF Bureau's Hay Dat and Political Affairs Office Director Kiro Manoyan said. “Though Barack Obama used all the synonyms characterizing the Armenian Genocide, except for that word, it proves that the he does not differ from the presidents criticized by him for non-recognition of the Genocide. This time he had no reasons for refraining from using the term genocide,” Kiro Manoyan told a PanARMENIAN.Net reporter.

U.S. President Barack Obama addressed the Armenian community of the U.S., again using term Meds Yeghern with respect to the Armenian Genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

The Armenian Genocide

The Armenian Genocide (1915-23) was the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I. It was characterized by massacres and deportations, involving forced marches under conditions designed to lead to the death of the deportees, with the total number of deaths reaching 1.5 million.

The majority of Armenian Diaspora communities were formed by the Genocide survivors.

Present-day Turkey denies the fact of the Armenian Genocide, justifying the atrocities as “deportation to secure Armenians”. Only a few Turkish intellectuals, including Nobel Prize winner Orhan Pamuk and scholar Taner Akcam, speak openly about the necessity to recognize this crime against humanity.

The Armenian Genocide was recognized by Uruguay, Russia, France, Lithuania, Italy, 45 U.S. states, Greece, Cyprus, Lebanon, Argentina, Belgium, Austria, Wales, Switzerland, Canada, Poland, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, the Vatican, Luxembourg, Brazil, Germany, the Netherlands, Paraguay, Sweden, Venezuela, Slovakia, Syria, Vatican, as well as the European Parliament and the World Council of Churches.