Pope Francis calls Armenian slaughter ‘genocide’
Pontiff’s comments are likely to anger Turkey, which denies that the
killings 100 years ago constituted genocide
Pope Francis calls Armenian massacre `genocide’
Rosie Scammell in Rome
Sunday 12 April 2015 08.46 BSTLast modified on Sunday 12 April 201512.29 BST
Pope Francis has described the mass killing of Armenians 100 years ago
as a genocide ` a politically explosive pronouncement that could
damage diplomatic relations with Turkey.
During a special mass to mark the centenary of the mass killing, the
pontiff referred to `three massive and unprecedented tragedies’ of the
past century. `The first, which is widely considered `the first
genocide of the twentieth century’, struck your own Armenian people,’
he said, quoting a declaration signed in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and
Kerekin II, leader of the Armenian church.
`Bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even
defenceless children and the infirm were murdered,’ the 78-year-old
pontiff said.
Historians estimate up to 1.5 million Armenians were slaughtered in a
wave of violence that accompanied the fall of the Ottoman empire.
Despite the massacre being formally recognised as a genocide by Italy
and a number of other countries,Turkey refuses to make such a
declaration.
Although Francis chose to quote a former pontiff rather than speak in
his own words, he told Armenians there was a duty to remember to
killings.
`We recall the centenary of that tragic event, that immense and
senseless slaughter whose cruelty your forebears had to endure. It is
necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for whenever
memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester,’ he said in
St Peter’s Basilica.
During the mass Francis also declared a 10th-century Armenian monk, St
Gregory of Narek, a `doctor of the church’. The mystic and poet is
celebrated for his writings, some of which are still recited each
Sunday in Armenian churches.
The pope was joined at the Vatican by a number of Armenian
dignitaries, including the president, Serž Sargsyan, and the head of
the Armenian Apostolic church, Karekin II.
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Theo van Lint, a Calouste Gulbenkian professor of Armenian studies at
the University of Oxford, said allowing Armenian leaders to speak in
St Peter’s Basilica was a strategic move.
`I think it’s very important to realise he gave space to the leaders `
the heads of the Armenian church and Armenian Catholics ` to fully
give their view of events. It’s very clear that the pope accepts that
it is a genocide,’ van Lint told the Guardian.
He said the pontiff’s decision to refer to the mass killing of
Armenians along with crimes perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism gave
the Vatican’s `highest sanction’ to genocide recognition.
Igor Dorfmann-Lazarev, a researcher on Armenian history and culture at
the School of Oriental and African Studies, said the ceremony
demonstrated Francis’ attempt to put periphery Christian groups at the
centre of the Catholic church.
`This is the first time that Armenia is the centre of attention of
Catholic life and the Christian world. It’s meant to draw attention to
the Christian east,’ he said.
Francis’s use of the word `genocide’ was unlikely to change relations
between Armenia and Turkey, Dorfmann-Lazarev said, although it would
raise diplomatic concerns at the Vatican.
From: A. Papazian