(WASHINGTON, DC) — U.S. officials announced on Wednesday that President Barack Obama will not call the 1915 massacre of Armenians a genocide, prompting anger from those who have been pushing him to make the announcement on the 100th anniversary of the killings.
Top administration officials met with Armenian-American leaders on Tuesday before publicly announcing their decision. Media reports say Obama officials were advised not to call the killings a genocide from some at the State Department and the Pentagon.
“The president and other senior administration officials have repeatedly acknowledged the historical fact that 1.5 million Armenians were massacred and marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Wednesday. “As we have said in previous years, a full frank and just acknowledgment of the facts is in all of our interests, including Turkey’s, Armenia’s and America’s.”
As a presidential candidate, Obama formerly described the killings a “genocide” and said the U.S. government had a “responsibility” to recognize them as such. In January 2008, he pledged to recognize the genocide if elected president.
But Obama has never used that description since becoming president, out of obedience to Turkey, a key U.S. partner and ally, which is frantically opposed to the “genocide” label.
The U.S. announcement added that Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew will attend a ceremony in Armenia on Friday to mark the anniversary.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, which has been widely recognized by scholars as genocide. Turkey, however, denies the claim and says the death toll has been inflated.
Intense negative reaction to the announcement came from members of the Armenian-American community and members of Congress who have been rallying the president to clarify the label.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said he was “deeply disappointed” by the president’s decision.
“The United States has long prided itself for being a beacon of human rights, for speaking out against atrocity, for confronting painful chapters of its own past and that of others,” said Schiff. “This cannot be squared with a policy of complicity in genocide denial by the president or Congress.”
Armenian officials say they feel betrayed by the president.
“President Obama’s surrender to Turkey represents a national disgrace,” said Ken Hachikian, the chairman of the Armenian National Council of America. “It is, very simply, a betrayal of truth, a betrayal of trust.”