POPE CALLS TURKEY’S ARMENIAN SLAUGHTER ‘GENOCIDE’
Japan Times
April 12 2015
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis on Sunday marked the 100th anniversary
of the slaughter of Armenians, calling it “the first genocide of
the 20th century,” a politically explosive pronouncement that will
certainly anger Turkey.
Francis, who has close ties to the Armenian community from his days
in Argentina, defended his pronouncement by saying it was his duty
to honor the memory of the innocent men, women, children, priests
and bishops who were “senselessly” murdered.
“Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it,” he said at the start of a Mass on Sunday in the
Armenian Catholic rite at St. Peter’s Basilica honoring the centenary.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by
Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed
by genocide scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century.
Turkey however denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying
that the toll has been inflated and the dead were victims of civil
war and unrest.
Turkey’s embassy to the Holy See canceled a planned press conference
for Sunday, presumably after learning that the pope would utter the
word “genocide” over its objections.
Several European countries recognize the massacres as genocide, though
Italy and the United States have avoided using the term officially
given the importance they place on Turkey as an ally.