How Barack Obama Refrained From Using the 'g' Word in Turkey

Even before he took office, Turks were anxious to hear Barack Obama's attitude towards the Armenians who died during the last days of the Ottoman empire. Armenians in the US say that up to 1.5 million of their ethnic kin were killed by Ottoman forces in a genocide plotted by the then Turkish leadership. Turkey has said the numbers are exaggerated and the deaths not deliberate genocide.

During last year's presidential election campaign, Obama had no doubt. "The Armenian genocide is not an allegation, a personal opinion or a point of view, but rather a widely documented fact supported by an overwhelming body of historical evidence."

Obama, with Turkey's president Abdullah Gul and before parliament yesterday, refrained from using what the Turkish media call "the g word". It was not because his views had changed, he said, but because of ongoing talks between Turkey and Armenia, they no longer matter. "What I want to do now is not focus on my views but on the views of the Turkish and Armenian people," he said.