TURKEY “DISAPPOINTED” BY POPE’S GENOCIDE COMMENTS
ITAR-TASS, Russia
April 12, 2015 Sunday 05:55 PM GMT+4
The Turkish authorities are “disappointed” by the comments made by Pope
Francis, who used the word “genocide” in describing the mass killing
of Armenians under Ottoman rule in World War I, Reuters said on Sunday
The statement made by the Pope causes a “problem of trust” between
Turkey and the Vatican, the authorities said.
Pope Francis’ comments came at a service in Rome’s St. Peter’s Basilica
attended by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan.
The Pope said 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,” Pope Francis said, referencing a 2001
declaration by Pope John Paul II and the head of the Armenian church.
The Pope said that “Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans
and Greeks” were also killed in the bloodshed a century ago.
–0 –sap