DailyNews President Barack Obama's trip to Los Angeles on Thursday to raise campaign funds came with a reminder of a promise he made while running for office - and one he has yet to keep.

Hundreds of Armenian-Americans seized on Obama's visit to call on the president to fulfill his pledge to recognize the Armenian Genocide, rallying outside Sony Pictures Studio in Culver City where he was attending a backlot event just days before April 24, the 96th anniversary of the genocide.

In 2009, two days before the California primary, Obama promised: "As president, I will recognize the Armenian Genocide."

Yet two years later, as his trip brought him to the largest stronghold of Armenians outside

of Armenia, Obama remains the latest on a list of presidents who have stopped short of using the term "genocide" to describe the events from 1915 to 1923 in which an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were systematically killed by the Ottoman Empire.

"This is about the suffering of a people," said William Bairamian, executive director western region of the Armenian National Committee of America. "This is about getting justice for that suffering. And rather than characterizing it in a way that President Obama himself promised to do, they are now using linguistic gymnastics to avoid doing what they promised to do." | Click here to see photo gallery.

Obama has called the genocide "one of the great atrocities of the 20th century" and used the words "massacred" and "murdered" and even the Armenian term "Meds Yeghern," which means "Great Calamity."

George W. Bush called it an "epic human tragedy," a "terrible chapter of history." Bill Clinton said it was "one of this century's darkest moments."

All have stopped short of calling it a genocide, even though historians, at least 20 foreign countries and most U.S. states have recognized it as such.

Ronald Reagan did refer to it, but in passing as a "genocide of Armenians" while talking about the Holocaust.

The issue is at the center of a delicate balancing act by the United States, which has skirted officially recognizing the genocide while it tries to avoid angering Turkey, a NATO ally. Obama has instead pushed a reconciliation effort between Turkey and Armenia.

Turkey has resisted use of the term and maintained that the killings were a result of an armed rebellion by Armenians against the Turks in what was then the Ottoman Empire.

State and foreign officials have urged Turkey to change its stance.

"While it's imperative that our president accurately describe the 20th century's first documented genocide, it's even more important for Turkey to do so," said Councilman Paul Krekorian, who authored a resolution commemorating the 96th anniversary that the city approved Thursday. "Their continued failure to do so is a stain on our collective human dignity."

The wordplay and politics has frustrated Armenian-Americans.

"Can you imagine the Jews today, if people got up and said, `The Holocaust never happened?"' said Koko Balian of Studio City, a Republican who broke party ties for the first time to vote for Obama. "It's a basic human right. That's all we're asking. We're saying, `Mr.President, remember your promise. Stick with your promise to us."'

This year's anniversary falls on Easter Sunday, which carries added meaning for Armenians. Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity in 300 A.D.

"Jesus died so we could live," Balian said. "On the same day, our ancestors died so we could live on."

Obama's dancing around the term is seen as the U.S. being complicit in Turkey's denial, and was enough for some to think about organizing the ANCA to vote against him in the next election if his promise isn't delivered.

The White House declined an invitation by ANCA for Obama to lay a wreath at the Armenian Genocide Monument in Montebello during his visit.

Los Angeles County has estimated that at least 350,000 Armenians live in the county.

It remains to be seen if the protest will have any effect on Obama, who is scheduled to release an annual statement commemorating the genocide victims on Sunday.

Crowd counts varied from about 500 to 2,000.

"It hurts me as an American as much as it hurts me as an Armenian," said Gabriel Injejikian, the 80-year-old founder of Encino's Holy Martyrs Ferrahian Armenian High School, the first Armenian school in the U.S.

Injejikian's grandparents were killed in the genocide and his father was wounded, limping for the rest of his life.

"It so much breaks our heart," Injejikian said. "To think that for almost a whole century ... where many, many European countries have recognized the genocide officially, to have the United States not do so."