Trump used instead the Armenian phrase “Meds Yeghern,” or Great Crime, to commemorate the 110th anniversary of the start of the massacres in Ottoman Turkey.
“Today we commemorate the Meds Yeghern, and honor the memories of those wonderful souls who suffered in one of the worst disasters of the 20th Century,” read a statement released by him. “Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were exiled and marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire. On this Day of Remembrance, we again join the Great Armenian Community in America, and around the World, in mourning the many lives that were lost.”
Trump likewise avoided using the word “genocide” doing his first presidential term, following the example of previous U.S. presidents. By contrast, Biden referred to the World War One-era slaughter of Ottoman Armenians as genocide throughout his tenure.
Also, both houses of the U.S. Congress unanimously passed genocide resolutions in 2019 after decades of lobbying by Armenian-American advocacy groups. One of those groups, the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), condemned Trump’s “shameful retreat from American recognition and remembrance of the Armenian Genocide” which it said happened under “Turkish pressure.”
“President Trump’s omission is not a diplomatic oversight – but rather a deliberate retreat from truth and a dangerous signal of U.S. tolerance for ongoing anti-Armenian violence,” the ANCA executive director, Aram Hamparian, said in a statement. “It mirrors his first Administration’s shameful record of silence and complicity.”
But the Armenian Assembly of America downplayed Trump’s statement, saying that it “does not constitute a change in U.S. policy since the legislative and judicial branches have already clearly affirmed the historical record.” It also argued that the U.S. president used a “dictionary definition of genocide.”
“We remain steadfast in working together to prevent a second Genocide against the Armenian people, as Azerbaijan continues to threaten Armenia's security, and as 23 known Armenian hostages remain unjustly held in Baku,” said the Assembly director, Bryan Ardouny. “The Assembly, therefore, strongly urges the Administration to implement President Trump's pledge last year to protect Armenian Christians who ‘were horrifically persecuted and forcibly displaced in Artsakh.’”