ANKARA, Turkey -- President Obama on Monday declined to repeat his claim that the deaths of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I was a "genocide," stepping back from his campaign pledge to Armenian Americans that the "widely documented fact" would be fully commemorated during his presidency.
During a joint news conference alongside Turkish President Abdullah Gul, Obama said he did not want to "focus on my views" or in any way interfere with delicate negotiations between Turks and Armenians on what the president called "a whole host of issues."
Obama sidestepped the issue -- a key tension point between Turks and Armenians and a rallying cry among Armenian-Americans -- saying he was trying to be as "encouraging as possible."
"I want to be as encouraging as possible around those negotiations, which are moving forward and could bear fruit very quickly, very soon," Obama said. "What I want to do is not focus on my views right now but focus on the views of the Turkish and Armenian people. What I told the (Turkish) president is I want to be as constructive as possible in moving these issues forward quickly. My sense is that they are moving quickly. I don't want to, as the president of the United States, want to preempt any possible arrangements, announcements that might be made in the near future."
When asked if his views had changed or he was tempering them in light of the fragile Turkish-Armenian talks, Obama said he is not interested in "tilting these negotiations one way or another while they are having useful discussions."
Later during a speech to the Turkish parliament, Obama said he supports a full "normalization" of relations between Turkey and Armenia.
During the campaign, Obama was emphatic about the history of Turkish aggression against Armenians from 1915-1923 as the Ottoman Empire was collapsing and the bloodshed from World War I -- in which the Ottomans allied with the Germans -- spread across the continent.
On the Obama campaign Web site, the former Illinois senator said the following:
"I also share with Armenian Americans -- so many of whom are descended from genocide survivors -- a principled commitment to commemorating and ending genocide. That starts with acknowledging the tragic instances of genocide in world history. As a U.S. senator, I have stood with the Armenian American community in calling for Turkey's acknowledgement of the Armenian Genocide."
Obama protested Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's firing of U.S. Ambassador to Armenia John Evans for his use of the term "genocide" to describe Turkey's actions. - FOX News
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