Zenit News Agency, Italy
April 26 2008

Mass in Rome Marks Armenian Massacre

Monsignor Hopes World Comes to Recognize Genocide

By Robert Cheaib

ROME, APRIL 25, 2008 (Zenit.org).- A Mass in Rome celebrated by the
rector of the Pontifical Armenian College was among many events
marking the 93rd anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of
Armenians.

Monsignor Hovsep Kelekian celebrated the Mass in the Armenian church
of St. Nicholas of Tolentine.

He lamented the lack of an official international recognition of the
"’metz yeghern (great calamity) of the genocide" and expressed his
hope that "the genocide of the Armenian people be recognized by the
whole world" because "it is a fact."

In 1915 and the following years, vast numbers of Armenians were killed
within the Ottoman Empire as it broke apart. April 24, the day the
massacre began, is marked as Genocide Day in Armenia. The massacre
began that day when hundreds of intellectuals, doctors, lawyers,
journalists, priests and other representatives of the Armenian culture
and politics were arrested and eventually killed.

"We have gathered today to honor our martyrs and give thanks to our
relatives who gave us this life we live today," Monsignor Kelekian
said. "We hope that we can faithfully transmit to our descendants what
we have inherited — our faith and our Armenian culture."

After the Mass, prayers were said before the Khatc’kar memorial
erected in 2006 in memory of the victims.

The memorial Mass for the some 1.5 million victims was one of the
events of the awareness campaign led by the council of the Armenian
community of Rome.

L’Osservatore Romano today noted a petition from recently elected
Armenian President Serzh Sarkisian that the international community
recognize the massacre. He said Thursday that such recognition is a
priority of his presidency.

Armenia’s goal is not revenge, Sarkisian added. "We are willing to
establish normal relations with Turkey even tomorrow, without
preconditions, but the denial of the genocide has no future, above all
now that many countries around the world have united their voices to
the chorus of the truth."

L’Osservatore Romano noted that 22 countries recognize the massacre as
genocide. Turkey denies that the killings were a systematic "genocide"
and considers it a crime to use that term to refer to the event.

[Marta Lago contributed to this article]