Offended by Obama

Re “Marking Armenian genocide, many feel snubbed by Obama,” April 25

Barack Obama has stood up for the oppressed on our shores and throughout the world. Why won’t he stand up for the Armenian nation and people?

When word that President Obama had failed to use the word “genocide” to mark the Turks’ 1915 slaughter of the Armenian people was received at the April 24 memorial march in Hollywood, one could hear a pin drop, then loud boos. It must have been the same at the ceremony in Montebello and in all corners of our country. This was truly a hit below the belt.

For a full year or more before the presidential elections, Armenian organizations had expressed “hope” that Obama would “change” the United States’ position on the genocide, as he seemed to promise. How do we tell our children that Obama lied? Where is the “honest, open and constructive” discussion that he says he seeks?

I write in memory of my grandparents, who were killed at the hands of Turkey and whom I never met, and in memory of my parents and the others who were orphaned and driven out of their homes and land.

To America, which gave them and others a haven.

John Krikorian

Glendale