TURKEY’S RESPONSE TO POPE’S ARMENIAN GENOCIDE REMARK UNJUSTIFIED – ITALIAN FM
YEREVAN, April 14. /ARKA/. Turkey’s response to Pope Francis’ remark
over the Armenian genocide is not justified, head of Italy’s foreign
ministry Paolo Gentiloni said.
“The toughness of the Turkish tone does not seem justified, especially
when taking into account the fact that 15 years ago, John Paul II had
expressed similar remarks,” Gentiloni said, as cited by Novosti-Armenia
referring to RIA Novosti.
On Sunday the head of the Roman Catholic Church served a landmark
mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his
speech, Pope Francis used the world genocide in describing the mass
killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a century ago. The Pope’s
statement provoked anger in Turkey. Turkey recalled the ambassador
to the Vatican, and called the Vatican ambassador to the foreign
ministry for consultation. -0–
From: A. Papazian