Barack Obama Disappoints, Once Again

CNN reports that U.S. President Barack Obama will not use the word genocide to describe the massacre of the Armenian nation by Ottoman Turkey, fearing that it will damage “relations with Turkey amid growing unrest in the Middle East.”

An administration official said that they were aware people were hoping to hear him say genocide. “We understand their perspective, even as we believe that the approach we have taken in previous years remains the right one -- both for acknowledging the past, and for our ability to work with regional partners to save lives in the present,” the official said according to CNN.

In 2008, during his presidential campaign, Obama promised to recognize the Armenian Genocide as president.

Chair of the Armenian National Committee of Armenia, Ken Hachikian said, "President Obama's surrender to Turkey represents a national disgrace. It is, very simply, a betrayal of truth, a betrayal of trust.”

California Rep. Adam Schiff who is the Democratic leader of the House Intelligence Committee said he was “deeply disappointed” by Obama’s decision to avoid using the word genocide. "How long must the victims and their families wait before our nation has the courage to confront Turkey with the truth about the murderous past of the Ottoman Empire? If not this President, who spoke so eloquently and passionately about recognition in the past, whom? If not after one hundred years, when?" Schiff wrote in a statement.

On April 12, Pope Francis led a Holy Mass for the faithful of the Armenian Rite at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican and said that the massacre of the Armenian people was the “first genocide of the 20th century.”

On April 15, Members of the European Parliament overwhelmingly voted in favor of passing a resolution on the centenary of the Armenian Genocide urging Turkey to come to terms with its past and recognize the Armenian Genocide during its plenary session. The resolution was supported by all political groups in the European Parliament.

The German Bundestag is expected to pass a resolution on April 24, which will use the word genocide to describe the events of 1915.