Whoops--I must have missed that one

I'm not big on history in general. In high school and middle school I didn't pay too much attention to what we learned and basically just memorized the facts I needed to know to do well on the test. It's possible that one of the many history teachers I've had mentioned the Armenian genocide, but I have absolutely not recollection of it. I remember learning about the WWI era of American and world history, having to memorize who was on what side and such. I remember Turkey being a part of the whole hubub, but I do not remember anything about Armenians. It's possible that maybe there was some sort of blurb in one of my textbooks or a quick mention by a teacher, but it wasn't enough to leave an imprint.
I do think this is something I should have known about--something that everyone should be aware of. No matter which side you land on concerning whether or not it was genocide, such a massive number of deaths connected to the same people and events deserves to be studied and analyzed and understood to prevent another similar catastrophe.
Why I never heard about it I don't know. I basically put the responsibility of this knowledge on my earlier schooling--which was in public schools so there is always the argument the government prevented the teaching of the event through text book selections or other means. Maybe it's because it's a controversial topic for some. Perhaps it's because the United States looks bad for their inaction at the time. Or it could all have to do with politics. I don't know which it is.