Pope’s statement shifts Armenian genocide issue into history of world Christianity history

YEREVAN, April 15. / ARKA /. Pope Francis’  statement on the Armenian genocide has shifted this issue into the context of the world history of Christianity, head of the Yerevan-based Caucasus Institute Alexander Iskandaryan said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Pope Francis last  Sunday publicly called the 1915 Turkish massacre of up to 1.5 million Armenians as "the first genocide of the 20th century," prompting Turkey to accuse him of inciting hatred. At a Mass in St. Peter's Square commemorating the massacre, Pope Francis underscored the "three massive and unprecedented tragedies" in the past century. 

"The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the twentieth century,' struck your own Armenian people, the first Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians, Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks. Bishops and priests, religious, women and men, the elderly and even defenseless children and the infirm were murdered," the Pope said. 

Ankara immediately summoned the Vatican ambassador for a dressing down and recalled its own envoy.

"The Pope is  the leader of the world's 1.2 billion Catholics and his statement is not just a word articulated  on the eve of April 24. Pope’s statement means actually shifting the Armenian Genocide issue into the context of the world history of Christianity," said Iskandaryan.

Iskandaryan said the mass at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome served by the Pope in memory of the victims of the genocide and the articulation of the word ‘genocide’ are an event of Christian and humanitarian value.

In a related development Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said today Turkey would ignore any decision by the European Parliament qualifying the 1915 killings of Armenians in World War I as genocide, saying such recognition would go "in one ear and out from the other".

The European Parliament is due to vote today on a "motion for resolution on the commemoration of the centennial of the Armenian genocide". 

"Whatever decision the European Union Parliament makes today would go in one ear and out from the other because it is not possible for Turkey to accept such a sin or crime," Erdogan told reporters at an Ankara airport before leaving for Kazakhstan.-0-