Since a few commenters on this post professed ignorance and/or indifference regarding the Armenian genocide—and whether or not Obama did a morally bankrupt thing by saying he'd acknowledge the genocide and then sidestepping the question to stay on good terms with Turkey—Slog reader Nevdon wrote up a short primer:

My family lived on the Euphrates river in a town named Egin, which means "spring" and was founded by Armenians in the 9th century. Egin is now called the Kemaliye to erase the memory of Armenians from the Eastern Turkish provinces that they (mostly) lived in.

The Turkish government did not start the what is now called the Genocide until 1915, but they had already started massacring Armenians in the 1890's. The reasons for this are usually attributed to a failing state attempting to scapegoat an educated minority population. The Armenians have been a diaspora since the times of the Romans (who we predate) and are sometimes called Christian "Jews."

My great grandfather had been expelled from Turkey for translating poems in the 1890's. After 2000 Egin Armenians were executed for a bank robbery(!) and hundreds of thousands of Armenians had been killed in Turkey in the mid 1890's, he managed to bribe a Turkish Steamship captain to conceal my great-grandmother and her children in rugs in the hold of his ship in Alexandria to smuggle them to England.

Every member of our family who was left behind was killed. We do not know the particulars.

The stories I grew up with as a child from other survivors included mass executions by the Turks through forced marching through the Syrian desert without food or water and being herded on frozen lakes and then having cannons fired into the lake to drown them.

Read the rest of the story below the jump. And please enjoy Jon Stewart on this same question in 2007:

We do not know the exact number of Armenians who were killed from 1915 to 1918, but it is commonly estimated to be around 1.5 million- or half of all living Armenians at the time.

The WWI German allies of the Turkish government were purportedly highly impressed with the Turkish regime's efficiency in dealing with the "Armenian Question" and apparently used many of the tactics against their own scapegoated minority 20 years later.

The Turkish Government has yet to recognize or apologize for the genocide and it is a crime to talk about it in Turkey today. (To do so "insults Turkishness.")

Why is this important?

Genocide can never be allowed to be covered up. Silence encourages further atrocities. Even Hitler said this: "I put ready my Death's Head units, with the order to kill without pity or mercy all men, women, and children... Who still talks nowadays of the extermination of the Armenians?"

In France it is a crime to deny the Armenian Genocide occurred.

The sooner Turkey has an honest discussion with itself, the sooner it will be admitted in the EU and the community of nations. I am not surprised that Turkey has been plagued with assassinations of prominent intellectuals and massive human rights abuses, as no one will stand up to the Turkish government in asking them to confront their history. The American President has the most powerful voice in the world—in compromising with honesty and lying about his pledge, he is complicit with the Genocide deniers and is helping to perpetuate terror.

I believe that this overrides any short term goals we may have with Turkey.

Are we so weak that we have to cave in a country that currently censors the press , bans LGBT organizations because they offend morality, tortures thousands of its own citizens ,has one of the worst records towards up mentally disabled citizens, still has wide spread "honor killings" , as well as a host other severe human rights abuses?

This is the country we are afraid of offending over the word 'genocide' to describe actions that occurred almost a hundred years ago?

I believe the Turkish people are better than this and to hold them to lower standards than European/ Christian countries encourages the worst elements of their society.