Turkish Press
May 9 2008
Pope recalls Armenian ‘martyrdom,’ avoiding ‘genocide’ term
05-09-2008, 15h54
VATICAN CITY (AFP)
Pope Benedict XVI on Friday recalled the "martyrdom" of the Armenian
Apostolic Church during a visit by its leader Karekin II, avoiding the
word "genocide" pronounced several times by his predecessor John Paul
II.
Karekin II, on the fourth and final day of a visit to the Vatican, had
on Wednesday urged "all nations to universally denounce the Armenian
genocide" in a speech to some 20,000 people gathered in St Peter’s
Square.
On Friday, however, the pope said: "The recent history of the Armenian
Apostolic Church has been written in the contrasting colours of
persecution and martyrdom, darkness and hope, humiliation and
spiritual rebirth.
"The restoration of freedom to the Church in Armenia has been a source
of great joy for us all," the 81-year-old pontiff added.
In November 2000, a meeting at the Vatican between John Paul II and
Karekin II ended with a joint statement condemning the Armenian
"genocide."
The following year, at Karekin II’s invitation, the Polish pope
travelled to Armenia where the two religious leaders again spoke of
"the extermination of one-and-a-half million Armenian Christians in
what is generally called the first genocide of the 20th century."
John Paul II also spoke of the "annihilation of thousands of people
that followed under the former totalitarian regime," referring to
Soviet-era religious persecution.
On Friday, Karekin II invited Benedict XVI to visit Armenia both in
his own name and on behalf of new President Serzh Sarkisian.
The two religious leaders had private talks after the pope led an
ecumenical celebration in the Apostolic Palace’s imposing Clementine
Hall.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the world’s oldest independent
churches, numbers some seven million adherents of whom two million
live in present-day Armenia.
Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kinsmen died in orchestrated
killings during the final years of the Ottoman Empire, with more than
20 countries officially recognising genocide as the decades passed.
Turkey says 300,000 Armenians and at least an equal number of Turks
were killed in civil strife when the Christian Armenians, backed by
Russia, rose up against the Ottomans.
The dispute has been a major obstacle in relations between Turkey and
Armenia, which have no diplomatic ties and whose border has remained
closed for more than a decade. (AFP)