TURKEY ANGRY AT POPE COMMENTS ON MASSACRE OF ARMENIANS AS ‘FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY’
ITV, UK
April 12 2015
Pope Francis described the massacre of as many as 1.5 million Armenians
as “the first genocide of the 20th century” at a 100th anniversary
Mass, prompting Turkey to summon the Vatican’s Ankara envoy.
The Holy See’s ambassador has been summoned by Turkish authorities
to express their unease over the comments.
It is the first time a pope has publicly pronounced the massacre as a
“genocide”.
Turkey has long refused to call the event a genocide and has insisted
that the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims
of civil war and unrest.
At the start of the Armenian rite Mass in the Vatican, Pope Francis
described the mass killing as “the first genocide of the 20th century”,
which was followed by “Nazism and Stalinism”.
It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honor their memory, for whenever
memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester.
Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it
– Pope Francis
Pope Francis also urged for reconciliation between Turkey and Armenia,
and between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed Caucasus mountain
region Nagorno-Karabakh.