Debate over campaign promise overshadows 94th anniversary of WWI killings

Yesterday marked the 94th anniversary of the massacre and deportation of as many as 1.5 million ethnic Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire. Already divided in their response to a speech delivered by US President Barack Obama in Turkey earlier this month, bloggers react to his statement marking the occasion, but which avoided directly referring to the WWI events as genocide.

Many were already resigned to the inevitable breaking of a campaign promise designed to attract the Armenian-American vote. Indeed, others had already noted Turkey’s strategic importance to the West, and a potential breakthrough in efforts to normalize relations between Armenia and Turkey which would reportedly involve the latter coming to terms with its own past.

This view is echoed by Yerevan-based Armenian-American analyst Richard Giragosian in a guest post on Post Global.

[…] any narrow focus on only the genocide issue or President Obama’s choice of wording obscures the point, as the burden for addressing Turkey’s historical legacy now rests with Turkey itself, which has already embarked on a significant, and at times painful, reexamination of its past and redefinition of its identity.

[…]

Thus, given the unique opportunity now before us, we can only hope that Turkey and Armenia will be able to move forward together, coming to terms with the legacy of the past, but based on a shared commitment to the future. […]

Even so, some Armenian bloggers such as Sevana at Life in the Armenian Diaspora don’t agree and were furious even before the presidential statement.

So an announcement like this can only mean one thing. It’s April 22nd, and Turkey is worried Obama will say GENOCIDE in his April 24th statement. […]

Will Obama keep his promise, or will the Turkish games win the day? I want to believe that good will prevail, that this time, the campaign promises could be believed, but… the doubt is strong in me.

The full post where comments can be left is available on Global Voices Online.