Meds Yeghern

An Armenian term meaning “great calamity” – used to describe the murder of 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Many Armenians in America, and elsewhere, were disappointed recently when President Obama shied away from using the word “genocide” to describe the 1915 massacre, Ali Bulaç reported in Today’s Zaman.

During his presidential campaign, Barack Obama said:

The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence. America deserves a leader who speaks truthfully about the Armenian genocide and responds forcefully to all genocides.

Yet in a statement on Armenian Remembrance Day (April 24), President Obama appeared to moderate his language:

Ninety four years ago, one of the great atrocities of the 20th century began. Each year, we pause to remember the 1.5 million Armenians who were subsequently massacred or marched to their death in the final days of the Ottoman Empire. The Meds Yeghern must live on in our memories, just as it lives on in the hearts of the Armenian people.

Discussing the “G word” in The Independent, Robert Fisk argued that President Bill Clinton and President George W. Bush had both reneged on promises to call the 1915 massacre a genocide.

However, Ali Bulaç’s analysis of President George W. Bush’s speeches on the subject indicated that the 43rd president may have been inching towards the term genocide by a process of rhetorical inflation:

George W. Bush, had described the events as a “tragedy.” In 2006, he called it a “horrible tragedy”; in 2007, he called it one of the “greatest tragedies of the 20th century,” and lastly, in 2008, he said it was “an epic human tragedy.”

Commenting on President Obama’s linguistic light touch, Agence France-Presse reported:

After pressure from key U.S. ally Turkey, which is currently involved in reconciliation talks with Armenia, [Obama] trod a delicate diplomatic path and pointedly refrained from using the English word “genocide.”