The Armenian friend of Pope Francis: The story behind the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide
Agencia Prensa Armenia
Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s prime minister said that Pope Francis “has
joined this conspiracy” to form an “evil front” against the Turkish
government and has “ignorance or insufficient knowledge of history.”
Volkan Bozkir, Turkish Minister for European Affairs, said that the
Pope said what he said because he “was Argentine,” a country “that
welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi
torturers, with open arms.” Then he added that “unfortunately, in
Argentina, the Armenian diaspora controls the media and business.”
Cemil Ã=87içek, president of the Turkish Parliament, claimed that the
Pope’s words were “racist.” The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, was even harder: “Whenever politicians, religious
functionaries assume the duties of historians, then delirium comes
out, not fact.”
“Il primo genocidio del XX secolo” says Pope Francis with slow and
measured voice, during the Mass on Sunday April 12, 2015. He is
reading, but he looks at the people before uttering the word
“genocide”.
What happened so that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, pronounced
one of the most important speeches in the history of the fight for
recognition and repair of the genocide against the Armenian people
perpetrated by the Turkish state?
The person who is closer to answering this question, besides Pope
Francis, is Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of the Armenian
Apostolic Church for Argentina and Chile Republic. Born in Aleppo,
Syria, Mouradian studied and was ordained in Jerusalem. He arrived to
Argentina in 1975.
Behind the accusations of the Turkish government, there is a simple
story. “The only difference I have with him, is that he is fan of San
Lorenzo and I am fan of River Plate,” says the archbishop at the
beginning of the interview with Agencia Prensa Armenia. “He usually
calls me Mouradian,” recalls.
Asked if the Pope had anticipated that he would call the genocide by
its name, Archbishop Kissag Mouradian said that he had not said
anything before. “I was sure that he was going to say something,
because if he especially celebrated the Mass, he had to say
something.”
“The most important thing was to affirm what he always said and
asked. Turkey has to recognize the genocide for the welfare of the two
peoples, both Armenian and Turkish. Truth is always better than trying
to deny or lie,” says Mouradian.
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“Not only my friendship caused all this. The proximity to the Armenian
community in Argentina has influenced so that Bergoglio feel the truth
as it is. Thanks to what we did here for years, through ecumenism, he
managed to understand many things. That work helped so that the future
Pope knew the history of the Armenians. He is someone who has studied
much, and certainly prepares before giving a sermon,” he adds.
Before the historical Mass, the Pope received on Friday April 10 a
delegation from Argentina. “We were going to be fifteen or twenty
people and ended up going forty. When we greeted him, Pope Francis
told me: ‘If you were twenty I could have invited you to eat. Now it
is impossible’,” says the Archbishop, laughing.
The friendship between them “took hold when he called me to accompany
him to the prayer of the tragedy of Cromañon”, back in 2005. The
tragedy of Cromañon nightclub was a fire that occurred in Buenos
Aires, on 30 December 2004, an accident that killed 194 people. “That
day, in the morning, my phone rang and Bergoglio said: ‘Mouradian
please do not leave me alone, join me to say a prayer at the Cathedral
for the tragedy of Cromañon’. It was very hard, the Cathedral was
crowded with people holding photos of the victims. We were just him
and I, along with other priests. At the door, people asked to pray for
them and one was aware of the impotence they had. It seems that people
expected a miracle from us, to return them the lives of the children
who were lost. You feel you want to help, but you also need help,”
recounts Mouradian.
– Did you met more often after that sad event?
On April 24 we officiated ceremonies of dirge in the Cathedral of
Buenos Aires, where he always addressed his words to the Armenian
people. On one of these occasions he called on Turkey to recognize his
crime to enhance the relationship and doing good to the Armenian
people and the Turkish people. At that time he was a bishop and was
not recognized worldwide. Today is different, he is the Pope and head
of the Vatican.
We also shared several ecumenical prayers, especially those organized
by the St. Egidio group, created by John Paul II, which helps
homeless.
When the Armenians opened an altar of Jude Thaddaeus in the Basilica
of La Merced, he asked to do another one of Saint Bartholomew. They
are the two apostles who went to Armenia to Christianize the Armenian
people.
In the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires there is a Khachkar to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and it was
also placed at the express request of Bergoglio. He asked, as a wish,
that someday he wanted to be buried under the Armenian Khachkar at the
Metropolitan Cathedral.
– How do you think he received the reply of Turkish officials that
even call him a discriminator?
If he caused all this, it is because he was ready to face Turkey. He
always told the truth and was in favor of justice. He is very brave
and very convinced of his convictions, they will not change for
anything. He is firm with justice and truth.
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