Pope riles Turkey by calling WWI slaughter of Armenians 'genocide'

Updated April 13, 2015 11:25:08

Pope Francis uttered the word "genocide" to describe the mass murder of Armenians 100 years ago, sparking anger from Turkey which summoned the Vatican's ambassador for an explanation.

"In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies," he said during a solemn mass in Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman killings of Armenians during World War I.

"The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the 20th century', struck your own Armenian people," he said, quoting a statement signed by Pope John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001.

While many historians describe the killings as the 20th century's first genocide, Turkey hotly denies the accusation.

Turkish foreign minister Mevlut Cavusoglu slammed Pope Francis' use of the word "genocide" as "baseless" and "far from the historical reality".

"The Pope's statement, which is far from the legal and historical reality, cannot be accepted," Mr Cavusoglu said in a statement on Twitter.


The Pope's comments were extensively reported on the country's main news websites.

"The Pope, the first guest in the palace, used the word 'genocide'", said the Cumhuriyet daily on its website, referring ironically to the fact that the Pope was president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's first top-ranking visitor to his new presidential palace in Ankara when he visited Turkey in November 2014.

While the Pope did not use his own words to describe the murders as genocide, it was the first time the term was spoken aloud in connection with Armenia by a head of the Roman Catholic Church in Saint Peter's Basilica.

Vatican expert Marco Tosatti said repeating that it was a genocide was "a very courageous act".

"By quoting John Paul II he strengthened the Church's position, making it clear where it stands on the issue," Mr Tosatii added.

'Immense and senseless slaughter'

The Argentine Pope described the "immense and senseless slaughter" and spoke of the duty to "honour their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester".

The 78-year-old had been under pressure to use the term "genocide" publicly to describe the slaughter, despite the risk of alienating an important ally in the fight against radical Islam.


As Pope, Francis is said to have used it once during a private audience in 2013, but even that sparked an outraged reaction from Turkey.




Vatican expert John Allen said ahead of the mass that the "truly bold" thing for Pope Francis to do was "show restraint" — something the Pope may feel he has achieved by uttering the word "genocide" but only while quoting his Polish predecessor.

When Pope Francis visited Turkey, Mr Erdogan offered the pontiff a pact under which he would defend Christians in the Middle East in exchange for the Church tackling Islamophobia in the West, Mr Allen said — describing it as "a potential game-changer".

'Genocide created by general and collective indifference'







Vatican watcher Marco Politi said the address was typical of a Pope who "uses language without excessive diplomatic cares" and whose aim was to "stimulate the international community" to intervene in modern-day persecutions.


Topics: catholic, religion-and-beliefs, armenia, holy-see-vatican-city-state

First posted April 12, 2015 19:06:21