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April 12 2015

Pope Francis calls Armenian WW1 killings ‘genocide’

Apr 12, 2015 at 8:47am

Pope Francis has used the word “genocide” to describe mass killing of
Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 100 years ago, at a Vatican church
service.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million people were
systematically killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

But the Pope’s statement is expected to anger Turkey, which has
consistently denied that the killings were genocide.

Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan is attending the service, to honour
a 10th century Armenian mystic.

The dispute has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey.
‘Bleeding wound’

The Pope first used the word genocide for the killings two years ago,
prompting a fierce protest from Turkey.

At Sunday’s Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter’s Basilica, he
said that humanity had lived through “three massive and unprecedented
tragedies” in the last century.

“The first, which is widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th
Century’, struck your own Armenian people,” he said.

The other two were the Nazi Holocaust and Stalinism, Associated Press
reported him as saying.

He said it was his duty to honour the memories of those who were killed.

“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” the Pope added.

On Sunday, Pope Francis was also to honour the 10th Century mystic St
Gregory of Narek by declaring him a doctor of the church. Only 35
people have been given the title, reports AP.

Armenia marks the date of 24 April 1915 as the start of the mass
killings. The country has long campaigned for greater recognition of
what it regards as a genocide.
‘Political conflict’

In 2014, Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered condolences to the
grandchildren of all the Armenians who lost their lives for the first
time.

But he also said that it was inadmissible for Armenia to turn the
issue “into a matter of political conflict”.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
empire split. Turkey has said the number of deaths was much smaller.

Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide. Among
the other states which formally recognise them as genocide are
Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay.

Turkey maintains that many of the dead were killed in clashes during
World War I, and that ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.