BY ARDASHES “ARDY” KASSAKHIAN
President Donald Trump has long enjoyed comparing himself to other leaders, often casting himself as superior and unique. Yet, on April 24, 2025—the 110th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide—he distinguished himself in a less flattering way.
He took America back to a time when our nation’s leaders were willing to bend their knees to appease Turkey and Genocide deniers. Trump issued a statement that conspicuously avoided the term “genocide,” opting instead for the Armenian phrase “Meds Yeghern,” meaning “Great Catastrophe” – a term first used during the Obama administration when he broke his promise to properly acknowledge the event with its accurate term.
This word play gymnastics used to describe a historical event sidesteps the legal and historical weight carried by the term “genocide.” Trump’s decision represents a serious and concerning step back in the ongoing effort to achieve formal recognition of the Armenian Genocide by the United States government which will pave the way for legal claims that the descendants of any survivors have.
In doing this disservice to Armenian-Americans and others who suffered during the Ottoman Empire’s waning days, Trump chose not history, not truth or facts — but his good friend, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
When I shared my analysis of the anticipated White House statement a few weeks ago, I was hoping that my gut instincts were wrong and that President Trump would appeal to a Christian voter base by acknowledging the heinous crime that Armenians suffered during the Armenian Genocide. But this isn’t just another missed opportunity. It’s a full-blown retreat.
After years of hard-fought progress, including Congress officially recognizing the Armenian Genocide in 2019 and President Biden breaking the taboo in 2021, Trump’s dodge is being hailed abroad as a diplomatic victory. Turkish media outlets like Daily Sabah — a mouthpiece that reliably echoes President Erdoğan’s worldview — crowed that Trump had “refrained” from the g-word yet again, praising his “objective” stance and emphasizing Turkey’s rejection of what they call a “subjective Armenian narrative.”
One doesn’t need to have a one-man YouTube podcast claiming to be a political expert to understand what’s happening: in Ankara, champagne corks are popping. In Baku, high-fives are flying. And somewhere in Jerusalem, uneasy silence hangs over a relationship that keeps getting harder to defend.
Trump’s cozy relationship with Erdoğan is no secret. As he once bragged, “I’m a big fan of President Erdoğan. He’s a friend of mine, and I’m proud to call him a friend.” (White House statement, 2019). Friendships, it seems, require favors — and for Trump, keeping Erdoğan happy meant muzzling America’s voice on genocide. It’s the kind of transactional loyalty that would make even the most jaded Machiavellian blush. But that seems to be par for the course in this administration. So much for the promises Trump made to drain the swamp.
Of course, Trump’s personal interests make his motives even murkier. After all, he’s the proud owner (or at least licensor) of the Trump Towers in Istanbul, a “major, major building” that he openly admitted posed a “conflict of interest,” as Time Magazine reported. Add in the Trump Organization’s shady dealings with Azerbaijan’s oligarchic elite — including ties to money laundering operations with connections to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, as was reported by The New Yorker — and you start to see a bigger, uglier picture.
But there’s another, less-discussed layer: Israel’s deepening alliance with Azerbaijan. While Armenia struggles for recognition and survival, Israel has become one of Azerbaijan’s top arms suppliers — providing drones and weaponry used against Armenians in Artsakh and elsewhere, according to a report in The Jerusalem Post. All while Turkey and Azerbaijan continue their not-so-subtle dance of denial and revisionism about the genocide of 1915.
In this context, Trump’s silence isn’t just embarrassing. It’s dangerous. It strengthens the hand of those who want to erase history, those who wish to gaslight a century of suffering into a mere “tragic misunderstanding” where, supposedly, everyone suffered equally. This year’s backslide is not a mere diplomatic faux pas; it’s a betrayal with consequences. Every time America refuses to call the Armenian Genocide by its name, it sends a message to autocrats everywhere: deny hard enough, spin shamelessly enough, offer things in return for denying the truth, and someday the world might just shrug and move on.
But we won’t. Armenians and all people who care about historical truth and human rights won’t forget. We will keep speaking the word that Trump’s administration has choked on: Genocide. Because if history has taught us anything, it’s that silence in the face of atrocity is complicity. And complicity, no matter how gilded or profitable, is nothing to be proud of.
Ardashes “Ardy” Kassakhian is a current council member and former Mayor of Glendale. He is a lecturer and instructor of political science and former Executive Director of the Armenian National Committee of America – Western Region.
