Obama says "Meds Yeghern" again

US President Barack Obama avoided using the word "genocide" in an annual statement commemorating Armenians who perished during World War I in Anatolia, referring to the killings as "Meds Yeghern" -meaning Great Tragedy in Armenian- instead. "Today, we commemorate the Meds Yeghern, one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.  In doing so, we honour the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who were brutally massacred or marched to their deaths in the waning days of the Ottoman Empire," Obama said in his statement. Obama was widely expected to avoid the word genocide in his annual message, the fourth since he came to the office in 2009. Turkey, a key US ally, has repeatedly warned in the past that referring to the World War I events during the Ottoman Empire as the "Armenian genocide" would cause irreparable damage to ties. Turkey denies Armenian claims of genocide, saying there were deaths on both sides as Armenians revolted against the Ottoman Empire in collaboration with the Russian army, which was then invading eastern Anatolia, to establish an independent Armenian state.