Channel News Asia
April 12 2015

Pope riles Turkey by calling WWI slaughter of Armenians ‘genocide’

While many historians describe the cull of Armenians as the 20th
century’s first genocide, Turkey hotly denies the accusation.

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis uttered the word “genocide” on Sunday (Apr
12) to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago, sparking
fury from Turkey which slammed the term as “far from historical
reality”.

In a solemn mass in Saint Peter’s Basilica to mark the centenary of
the Ottoman killings of Armenians, Francis said the murders were
“widely considered ‘the first genocide of the 20th century’,” quoting
a statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in
2001.

Many historians describe the World War I slaughter as the 20th
century’s first genocide, but Turkey hotly denies the accusations.

“The pope’s statement, which is far from the legal and historical
reality, cannot be accepted,” Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said on Twitter. “Religious authorities are not the places
to incite resentment and hatred with baseless allegations,” he added.

The foreign ministry summoned the Vatican envoy to Ankara to explain
the pope’s comments. It accused the pontiff of engaging in a
“one-sided narrative” that ignored the suffering of Muslims and other
religious groups at that time.

While Francis did not use his own words to describe the killings as
genocide, it was the first time the term was spoken aloud in
connection with Armenia by a head of the Roman Catholic Church in
Saint Peter’s Basilica.

“It was a very courageous act to repeat clearly that it was a
genocide,” Vatican expert Marco Tosatti told AFP. “By quoting John
Paul II, he strengthened the Church’s position, making it clear where
it stands on the issue,” he added.

‘EVIL WOUNDS FESTER’

The Argentine pope described the “immense and senseless slaughter” and
spoke of the duty to “honour their memory, for whenever memory fades,
it means that evil allows wounds to fester.”

The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been under
pressure to use the term “genocide” publicly to describe the
slaughter, despite the risk of alienating an important ally in the
fight against radical Islam.

Before becoming pope, Jorge Bergoglio used the word several times in
events marking the mass murders, calling on Turkey to recognise the
killings as such.

As pope, Francis is said to have used it once during a private
audience in 2013 – but even that sparked an outraged reaction from
Turkey.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915
and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought
to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian
troops. More than 20 nations, including France and Russia, recognise
the killings as genocide.

Vatican expert John Allen said ahead of the mass that the “truly bold”
thing for Francis to do was “show restraint” – something the pope may
feel he has achieved by uttering the word “genocide” but only while
quoting his Polish predecessor.

When Francis visited Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan offered
the pontiff a pact under which he would defend Christians in the
Middle East in exchange for the Church tackling Islamophobia in the
West, Allen said – describing it as “a potential game-changer”.

‘MUFFLED AND FORGOTTEN CRY’

In 2014, Erdogan, then premier, offered condolences for the mass
killings for the first time, but the country still blames unrest and
famine for many of the deaths.

Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were
“perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism”, before pointing to more recent
mass killings in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia. “It seems that
humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the shedding of innocent
blood,” he said.

The Armenian victims a century ago were Christian and although the
killings were not openly driven by religious motives, the pontiff drew
comparisons with modern Christian refugees fleeing Islamic militants.

He referred once again to the modern day as “a time of war, a third
world war which is being fought piecemeal”, and evoked the “muffled
and forgotten cry” of those “decapitated, crucified, burned alive, or
forced to leave their homeland.”

“Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference,” he said.

Vatican watcher Marco Politi said the address was typical of a pope
who “uses language without excessive diplomatic cares” and whose aim
was to “stimulate the international community” to intervene in
modern-day persecutions.

– AFP/ek/ec