In Turkey, Obama avoids the word 'genocide'

[biopowertoday]

Source: latimes


http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-obama-turkey7-2009apr07,0,529116.story


In Turkey, Obama avoids the word 'genocide'


TRIBUTE: President Obama gets help from a member of the Turkish honor guard as he prepares to lay a wreath at the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey.
Last year he described the deaths of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians before and during World War I as genocide, but today he emphasizes increasingly cordial contacts between the two nations.
By Christi Parsons and Laura King, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

5:30 AM PDT, April 6, 2009
Reporting from Ankara and Istanbul — President Barack Obama, steering a delicate course on an explosive issue here, said today that his views on the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks early in the last century had not changed, but avoided using the word "genocide" in front of his Turkish hosts.

At a joint news conference with President Abdullah Gul, Obama -- who in 2008 explicitly described the deaths of up to 1.5 million ethnic Armenians before and during World War I as genocide -- sought instead to place the emphasis on increasingly cordial contacts between Turkey and Armenia, and on hopes for a breakthrough "very soon" in bilateral ties.




"If they can move forward and deal with a difficult and tragic history, I think the whole world will encourage them," Obama said.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fgw-obama-turkey7-2009apr07,0,529116.story

[Bolo Boffin]

1. While that is true

He stood there giving a speech before their parliament and referred explicitly to the event.

ETA: His speech before the Parliament is about to air on C-Span right now.

[Mithreal]

10. Thank you for that significant correction. nt

[Cant trust em]

2. I wonder what Samantha Power would have to say about this. NT

[biopowertoday]

3. She is

not about to verbalize about this issue at this point.

[Cant trust em]

9. Do we know what she's doing these days?

I was really disappointed in the "incident" during the primaries. I hope she gets back in the game sometime soon if she isn't already.

[Zhade]

4. Boy, he sure is eager to "move on" when massive amounts of people die.

This... Iraq...

[Wizard777]

8. Perhaps the movement most us here supported should have been called STOP RIGHT THERE!

After we have spent years screaming MOVE ON! We're amazed that they are doing exactly that.

[EFerrari]

13. He took money from anti Castro terror sponsoring CANF in Miami

but says Chavez is sponsoring terrorism which he obviously isn't. He won't end the Cuban embargo because he says Cuba doesn't have a democracy but he defends illegal wiretapping here. He won't say genocide in Turkey -- what's next? Is he going to tell the Armenians to "stand up" the way he said Iraqis should do?

This may look like diplomacy to some people. It looks like naked political opportunism to me. Maybe diplomacy is just dead and nobody told me. Maybe this is just the New Diplomacy.

[corruptmewithpower]

5. Turkey's genocide

In their highest councils Turkish leaders decided to exterminate every Armenian in the country

From 1900 to 1923, various Turkish regimes killed from 3,500,000 to over 4,300,000 Armenians, Greeks, Nestorians, and other Christians.

http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/SOD.CHAP5.HTM

[aquart]

12. Well, these days we're hardly ones to talk.

But the Armenian genocide happened. Meanwhile, Turkey is making plans to drown the Kurds.

[corruptmewithpower]

15. Genocides do indeed happen.

Mass murder was by far the largest cause of premature death in the twentieth century.

Iraq Body Count

http://www.iraqbodycount.org/

[earcandle]

6. Diplomacy ... if he can bring others together, can we stop the genocide?

[madohioan]

7. Should the holocaust be called holocaust?

Perhaps only when our Presidents are not giving speeches in Germany.

[FrenchieCat]

11. Author of the 2006 book, "Shameful Act: The Armenian Genocide...."

commented on President Obama's speech.....

Turkish genocide scholar applauds Obama
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8326134

[27dwarfs]

14. The Armenians aren't happy about it

Saing the Prez missed an opportunity to keep his campaign promise.

[bdamomma]

16. welcome to DU 27dwarfs

this Armenian is not too happy, Pres. Obama had said in his campaign he was going to bring this subject forward, and not only the Armenians but the situation in Darfur too. Very disappointing this is all politics, the Turkish President does not want the HR 252 to go forward in Congress, Recognition of Armenian Genocide, sad very sad.