Speaker of Turkish parliament displeased by Obama's address on Meds Yeghern

PanARMENIAN.Net - Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) Mehmet Ali Sahin commented on the U.S. President address. "Possibly, there is an idea of intimidating Turkey implicitly. I consider the fact that parliaments of some countries put every year the Armenian Cause on their agenda on April 24 to be a reprehensible behavior. Let historians deal with history; politicians cannot write or analyze history," TRT-Russian quoted Sahin 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.”