Turkey and the international community speak not the same language – Nalbandyan

On Sunday the head of the Roman Catholic Church served a landmark mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter’s Basilica. In his speech, Pope Francis used the world genocide in describing the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey a century ago. The Pope’s statement provoked anger in Turkey. Turkey recalled the ambassador to the Vatican, and called the Vatican ambassador to the foreign ministry for consultation. 

The Pope’s statement is a call to consolidate, to support the Armenian people, to back the efforts of the international community to prevent the future crimes against humanity, the foreign minister said. 

It is the spiritual leader’s address to some 1.2 billion Catholics, he said. 

“If Turkey disagrees with this statement and with many countries having recognized the Armenian genocide, and does not agree with the opinion of the international organizations, than it is the problem of Turkey, but not of the global community. This indicates that Turkey and the international community do not speak the same language,” Nalbandyan said. 

This confirms Ankara continues it denial policy at a high level and, hence, assumes responsibility for the crime committed by the Ottoman Empire leadership, the Armenian foreign minister said. 

Guided by universal human values, the Pope said that concealing or denying the genocide would mean leaving the wound bleeding without bandaging it, Nalbandyan said. 

“Denial is opening the doors not to reconciliation, but to new crimes against humanity,” the Armenian foreign minister said. –0—