U.S. President Donald Trump, in his annual April 24 message, once again referred to the Armenian Genocide as “Meds Yeghern.”
“Today we pay tribute to the memory of the countless Armenians who were deported and brutally killed during the Meds Yeghern. This tragic chapter of human history will forever stand as a testament to the indomitable spirit of the Armenian people and the hope rooted in Christianity. We honor the profound strength and resilience demonstrated by Armenians in overcoming the immense tragedies of the past and building a better future defined by lasting prosperity, security, and peace. We stand with them,” Trump’s message states, as reported by RFE/RL
In the same message, Trump also addressed relations with Armenia and his Peace Council initiative.
“The United States and Armenia will continue working together to build a safer and more prosperous world. My administration is strengthening our strategic partnership, creating meaningful opportunities for the Armenian people and promoting long-term stability across the South Caucasus. And now, Americans and Armenians stand side by side in a historic Peace Council, united by our goal of ushering in a new era of peace through strength,” the message reads.
The Armenian National Committee of America stated that it “strongly condemns President Donald Trump’s continued retreat from U.S. recognition and remembrance of the Armenian Genocide.”
According to the committee’s executive director Aram Hamparian, Trump has once again yielded to Turkish pressure, “continuing, for the sixth time, to enforce Ankara’s gag rule against honest American remembrance of this crime—despite recognition by the White House, Congress, all fifty states, and more than a dozen NATO allies.”
Hamparian also emphasized that the U.S. president’s “complicity in covering up Turkey’s crimes is intertwined with his administration’s reckless policy of enabling and arming Azerbaijan’s ongoing efforts to eliminate Armenians from their historic homeland.”
“Following Azerbaijan’s ethnic cleansing of the indigenous Armenian population of Artsakh, the continued occupation of Armenian territories, the mistreatment of Armenian prisoners, and the destruction of Armenian Christian heritage, the United States must not only speak the truth about the 1915 genocide but also end its complicity in pan-Turkic efforts to complete that genocide,” the ANCA executive director said.
The United States has already officially recognized the Armenian Genocide at both the presidential level and in both chambers of Congress. Since 2021, the 46th U.S. president, Joe Biden, has used the term “Armenian Genocide” in his April 24 statements.
During his first presidency, Donald Trump also used the expression “Meds Yeghern,” a term first employed by the 44th U.S. president, Barack Obama, in 2009.
