On this promise, President Barack Obama is now batting zero for eight.
During his first presidential campaign in 2008, Obama said he would recognize the event, noting, "Two years ago, I criticized the secretary of state for the firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia, John Evans, after he properly used the term 'genocide' to describe Turkey's slaughter of thousands of Armenians starting in 1915. … As president I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."
The Armenian genocide was carried out by the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1923, and resulted in the deaths of 1.5 million people. The Armenian-American community calls it a "genocide," as do other world leaders, including Pope Francis. Turkey is the primary successor nation to the Ottoman Empire.
But that term has long been controversial in Turkey, where leaders have resisted the label "genocide." Indeed, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN on the eve of last year's centennial of the event that "we cannot define what happened in 1915 as a genocide."
Although Turkey commemorates the Armenians that passed away, the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his statement this year said, "We will never give up working for amity and peace against those who try to politicize history through a bitter rhetoric of hate and enmity and strive to alienate the two neighboring nations, who are bound with their common history and their similar traditions."
There's a widespread belief that U.S. presidents from both parties have avoided the use of the word because they don't want to upset Turkey -- a geopolitically significant ally of the United States and a key member of the NATO military alliance.
The U.S.-Turkish relationship has been tense in recent years, partly because of the Erdogan government's increasingly authoritarian bent, as well as due to differences in how to approach the Syrian crisis. Using a stronger term such as "genocide" might disrupt Turkey's efforts in the fight against ISIS around such issues as the use of the Incirlik Air Base, cooperation on border control and the refugee crisis, as well as arming and funding anti-ISIS rebels.
On April 22, 2016, Obama released a statement on Armenian Remembrance Day. And as he has in the past, he used phrases such as "mass atrocity" and "tragedy," but he did not use the word "genocide." Here are excerpts:
"Today we solemnly reflect on the first mass atrocity of the 20th century -- the Armenian Meds Yeghern -- when one and a half million Armenian people were deported, massacred, and marched to their deaths in the final days of the Ottoman empire. …
"As we look from the past to the future, we continue to underscore the importance of historical remembrance as a tool of prevention, as we call for a full, frank, and just acknowledgment of the facts, which would serve the interests of all concerned. I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view has not changed. I have also seen that peoples and nations grow stronger, and build a foundation for a more just and tolerant future, by acknowledging and reckoning with painful elements of the past. We continue to welcome the expression of views by those who have sought to shed new light into the darkness of the past, from Turkish and Armenian historians to Pope Francis.
"Today we stand with the Armenian people throughout the world in recalling the horror of the Meds Yeghern and reaffirm our ongoing commitment to a democratic, peaceful, and prosperous Armenia."
Armenian-American advocates every year have been expressing disappointment over the missing word "genocide" and did so again this year, as it was his final annual statement on the massacre.
"It's a Turkish government veto over U.S. policy on the Armenian genocide," said Aram Hamparian, head of the Armenian National Committee of America, in an interview with the Associated Press. He also said, "It's like Erdogan imposing a gag rule very publicly and an American president enforcing that gag rule."
We first rated this Promise Broken seven years ago, and now we rate it for the last time again as a Promise Broken.