US President Barack Obama did not please anyone with the speech he delivered on April 24. Armenians in the US who expected to hear the word "genocide" in Obama's speech were disappointed.
Ken Hachikian, the chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA), expressed the general sentiment among Armenians in these words: "I join with all Armenian Americans in voicing our sharp disappointment with President Obama's failure to honor his solemn pledge to recognize the Armenian genocide." Obama's reference to the events of 1915 as "Meds Yeghern," which denotes "Great Calamity/Great Disaster" in the Armenian language, has also sparked some reaction in Turkey. Obama's predecessor, 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."
Like Bush, former US President Bill Clinton also had reflected on the events as the greatest tragedy of the 20th century. Considering the statements made by earlier American presidents, Obama's announcement on April 24, 2009, can be described as the harshest to date.
It is not difficult to understand why Obama acted the way he did. During his election campaign, Obama referred to the events as genocide and stated that it was a historical responsibility to accept the incidents as genocide. Although Obama did not use the word "genocide" in his speech, he said he had no regret over using the word during his election campaign and noted, "I have consistently stated my own view of what occurred in 1915, and my view of that history has not changed."
Meds Yeghern is not the exact Armenian term for genocide, but its meaning is very close to genocide. These words come from the old Armenian language, from a time when the concept of genocide was not even known. The best translation of Meds Yeghern is "Great Calamity." The word genocide gained legal and political meaning after World War II and was used to describe the Nazi's systematic massacre of Jews. Considering this fact, the phrase "Meds Yeghern" can etymologically only mean genocide if we ascribe that meaning to it. The United Nations also takes the Nazi atrocities as the reference point in history for the word genocide.
What's more important than looking at the origins and etymology of the word and what it really means is how it is perceived by people. Looking at it from this perspective, Meds Yeghern is the best word in the Armenian language to describe the events of 1915. Although Armenians are not going to be fully content until the events are recognized as genocide, surely they are still using words that describe a "horrific event" and ultimately they are explaining the period in 1915 as a "great calamity."
While this is the case for Armenians, there is another fact that must be taken into consideration -- Turkey will never recognize the events as genocide. There is no point in trying to put pressure on Turkey by having international powers intervene. Moreover, a crushing majority of Turks may not describe the events as genocide, but they do concede that it was a great calamity, and this phrase may serve as a middle ground for Turks and Armenians.
It is also important to convey that many Muslims, in addition to Armenians, suffered a huge tragedy in 1915. The comment President Abdullah Gül made as a response to Obama's speech was interesting. Gül said there were "hundreds of thousands of Turks and Muslims" who were killed during the same period and added that "Everyone's pain must be shared." Certainly by "everyone," Gül was referring to Armenians as well.
The language and terms used by Obama and Gül may signal the reaching of a middle ground over a problem that continues to disturb both countries -- that is, if the Armenians don't have "compensation and land claims" next on their agenda.
Today's Zaman