Ankara, Turkey - Navigating between U.S. politics and diplomacy, President Barack Obama said Monday he hasn't changed his mind about what he once called a Turkish genocide against the Armenians, but carefully avoided repeating the word.

    "My views are on the record and I have not changed views," he said when asked about his stance with Turkish President Abdullah Gul standing beside him.

    But he did not use the word genocide, nor did he repeat the condemnation he issued as a candidate while courting Armenian-Americans. He also did not say whether he discussed the emotionally charged issue during his private meeting with Gul.

    The question underscored a diplomatic challenge Monday as he opens a two-day visit to Turkey: would he fulfill a campaign promise that could offend his hosts?

    As a presidential candidate, Obama bluntly characterized the deaths of Armenians here nearly a century ago as genocide. But as president, he'll find the word would create a diplomatic incident, chill relations, and perhaps even cost support he deems critical to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    The flashpoint is the deaths of 1.5 million Armenians at the hands of the Turks in 1915, as World War I raged and the Ottoman Empire started to break apart. The descendants of the Armenians, many of them in California and around the United States, have long sought a formal recognition of what they and many historians insist was a planned genocide. A resolution is pending in Congress.

    But the Turks have called the Armenians victims of a civil war, and vehemently reject the characterization.

    Obama had no such qualms when he was seeking the support of Armenian-Americans in his campaign.

    "There was a genocide that did take place against the Armenian people," Obama said during the campaign. "It is one of these situations where we have seen a constant denial on the part of the Turkish government and others that this occurred."

    While President Ronald Reagan did issue a statement recognizing genocide, other presidents have made such a promise to win votes only to abandon them in office.

    Samantha Power, then a top foreign policy adviser to Obama, went so far as to make a videotaped appeal to Armenian-Americans that Obama was not just another politician currying favor, and that he would follow through.

    In it, she noted that she first met Obama after he read her book entitled "A Problem From Hell, America in the Age of Genocide." She said she "documented what happened to the Armenians in 1915," and that he called wanting to meet her. A one-hour session stretched to four hours, she said, lauding his "unshakable consciousness about human rights" and his "understanding the costs of denial."

    She urged Armenians to note "his very forthright statement on the Armenian genocide, his support for the Senate resolution acknowledging the genocide all these years later, his willingness as president to commemorate it and certainly to call a spade a spade."

    "He's a true friend to the Armenian people and an acknowledger of the history," she said. "I hope you in the Armenian community will take my word for it....but if not...pay attention to everything that comes out of that person's mouth, Barack Obama's mouth, because he's a person that can actually be trusted."

    Armenian-Americans were hopeful Obama would fulfill his promise, if not in Turkey then soon after and in time for the April 24 annual recognition of the Armenian deaths. The Armenian National Committee of America this week urged Obama to break from the "gag rule that Turkey has long imposed on U.S. recognition of the Armenian genocide."

    "The biggest issue on the U.S.-Turkish agenda...is the Armenian-genocide resolution," said Bulent Aliriza, director of the Turkey Project at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies.

    "The Turks are worried that, having committed himself to supporting the resolution during the campaign as a candidate, President Obama may not follow the example of Presidents Clinton and Bush in opposing the resolution and may, in fact, use the word 'genocide' himself."

    The diplomatic consequences would be significant at a time the United States is steadily improving relations after the chill following Turkey's refusal to allow U.S. troops to go through Turkey en route to invading Iraq.

    Long allies, the United States is particularly keen on better relations a sit seeks Turkey's help in winding down U.S. involvement in Iraq and escalates the war in Afghanistan. Also, it comes at a time when Obama is reaching out to the Muslim world; Turkey is largely Muslim.

    "None of the areas of cooperation that they will be talking about will materialize if (the genocide resolution) passes," Aliriza said. "The Turks will undoubtedly retaliate, and we may go into a deep freeze in the U.S.-Turkish relationship if it passes."

    But White House aides sidestepped questions about whether Obama would call the killings genocide. And a top foreign policy adviser to Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan said after a meeting at the White House several weeks ago that he'd been assured there would be no political problems during Obama's visit.

    Ahmet Davutoglu insisted that relations have improved between Turks and Armenians, noting that Turkish President Abdullah Gul last year visited Armenia, the first Turkish leader to do so. And Davutuglu said thousands of Armenians are working in Turkey. "There are no tensions in our relations," he said.

    Aram Hamparian, the executive director of the Armenian National Committee of America, disputed that, saying Turkey has engaged in an "illegal blockade" of Armenia and that "recent talks between Turkey and Armenia remain tenuous."