WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is pledging solidarity with
Armenians but isn't calling what happened to them 100 years ago
"genocide."
Obama says the 1915 massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks is a
solemn moment that calls for reflection on the importance of historical
remembrance and the work of reckoning with the past.
In a statement Thursday, Obama said he has consistently stated his
view on what happened in 1915 and that his view has not changed.
As a U.S. senator and candidate for president, Obama described the
killings of Armenians as "genocide" and said the U.S. government had a
responsibility to recognize them as such.
But Obama shied away from that description as president, mainly out of deference to Turkey.
Turkey is a key U.S. partner and NATO ally that fiercely opposes the "genocide" label.
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