WASHINGTON (Press TV) – U.S. President Donald Trump has censured the killings of more than one million Armenians at the hands of Ottoman Turks over 100 years ago, however, stopping short of describing them as "genocide.”
In a statement issued on the 102nd anniversary of the massacre, Trump commemorated "one of the worst mass atrocities of the 20th century."
"Beginning in 1915, one and a half million Armenians were deported, massacred, or marched to their deaths in the final years of the Ottoman Empire," he said. "I join the Armenian community in America and around the world in mourning the loss of innocent lives and the suffering endured by so many."
The remarks were made as thousands of Armenian-Americans had gathered to remember the "Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day” at Times Square in New York City and other locations in major cities across the States, waving the tricolor flags of Armenia and paying homage to the victims.
"We must remember atrocities to prevent them from occurring again,” Trump noted. "We welcome the efforts of Turks and Armenians to acknowledge and reckon with painful history, which is a critical step toward building a foundation for a more just and tolerant future.”
April 24 marks the date when hundreds of Armenians were arrested in the then-Ottoman capital of Constantinople in 1915 for allegedly collaborating with the enemies of the Turks. A process of mass killings then began.
Trump’s language on Monday was similar to that of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and other U.S. administration heads who were concerned with upsetting Turkey as a U.S. ally in the Middle East.
The former U.S. president had promised to recognize the killings as genocide but failed to follow through during his eight-year tenure.
In reaction to the latest remarks by the businessman-turned-politician, the Turkish Foreign Ministry claimed that Trump’s comments on the remembrance day were "misinformation” and "false definitions.”