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Slate Magazine
April 12 2015
Pope Angers Turkey by Calling Armenian Genocide a Genocide
By Daniel Politi
He said the G word. And Turkey is none too happy. Pope Francis sparked
a diplomatic row on Sunday when, as had been widely expected, he
called the mass killing of Armenians in World War I, "the first
genocide of the 20th century." The pontiff went even further though,
and called on the international community to stop beating around the
bush when talking about the slaughter of Armenians a century ago and
call it a genocide once and for all. Turkey's Foreign Ministry
summoned the Vatican ambassador in Ankara in protest, reports BBC
News. Although Turkey recognizes many Christian Armenians died during
battles with Ottoman soldiers that began in 1915, it has long denied
the deaths amounted to hundreds of thousands nor that it was a
genocide.
Sunday marked the first time the pope had publicly uttered the word
"genocide" to describe the massacre although he had also used the word
during a private meeting with an Armenian delegation in 2013. The
pontiff's views were hardly a mystery though seeing as though he had
already publicly called the killings a genocide when he was still
Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. The pope knew his words
were going to be closely monitored and he uttered "genocide" less than
100 words into his Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter's
Basilica:
Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: "What does it matter to me? Am I my brother's keeper?"
In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies. 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 defenceless
children and the infirm were murdered. The remaining two were
perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism.
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By calling it "the first genocide of the twentieth century," Francis
was quoting a declaration signed in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and
Kerekin II, the leader of the Armenian church. But he later went on to
describe the killings a "senseless slaughter" and made it clear that
in his mind no good can come from ignoring the truth: "Concealing or
denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it!" And in a subsequent message he said all heads of state
and international organizations must acknowledge the truth "without
ceding to ambiguity or compromise," reports the Associated Press.
Turkey told the Vatican's ambassador it was "deeply sorry and
disappointed" at the remarks, which it said went against Pope Francis'
message of peace when he visited the country in November. The pope's
comments will create a "problem of trust," an official said, according
to Today's Zaman.
Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the
"Today's Papers" column from 2006 to 2009. You can follow him on
Twitter @dpoliti.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/12/pope_angers_turkey_by_calling_armenian_genocide_a_ genocide.html
From: A. Papazian
April 12 2015
Pope Angers Turkey by Calling Armenian Genocide a Genocide
By Daniel Politi
He said the G word. And Turkey is none too happy. Pope Francis sparked
a diplomatic row on Sunday when, as had been widely expected, he
called the mass killing of Armenians in World War I, "the first
genocide of the 20th century." The pontiff went even further though,
and called on the international community to stop beating around the
bush when talking about the slaughter of Armenians a century ago and
call it a genocide once and for all. Turkey's Foreign Ministry
summoned the Vatican ambassador in Ankara in protest, reports BBC
News. Although Turkey recognizes many Christian Armenians died during
battles with Ottoman soldiers that began in 1915, it has long denied
the deaths amounted to hundreds of thousands nor that it was a
genocide.
Sunday marked the first time the pope had publicly uttered the word
"genocide" to describe the massacre although he had also used the word
during a private meeting with an Armenian delegation in 2013. The
pontiff's views were hardly a mystery though seeing as though he had
already publicly called the killings a genocide when he was still
Jorge Bergoglio, archbishop of Buenos Aires. The pope knew his words
were going to be closely monitored and he uttered "genocide" less than
100 words into his Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter's
Basilica:
Today too we are experiencing a sort of genocide created by general
and collective indifference, by the complicit silence of Cain, who
cries out: "What does it matter to me? Am I my brother's keeper?"
In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies. 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 defenceless
children and the infirm were murdered. The remaining two were
perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism.
Advertisement
By calling it "the first genocide of the twentieth century," Francis
was quoting a declaration signed in 2001 by Pope John Paul II and
Kerekin II, the leader of the Armenian church. But he later went on to
describe the killings a "senseless slaughter" and made it clear that
in his mind no good can come from ignoring the truth: "Concealing or
denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without
bandaging it!" And in a subsequent message he said all heads of state
and international organizations must acknowledge the truth "without
ceding to ambiguity or compromise," reports the Associated Press.
Turkey told the Vatican's ambassador it was "deeply sorry and
disappointed" at the remarks, which it said went against Pope Francis'
message of peace when he visited the country in November. The pope's
comments will create a "problem of trust," an official said, according
to Today's Zaman.
Daniel Politi has been contributing to Slate since 2004 and wrote the
"Today's Papers" column from 2006 to 2009. You can follow him on
Twitter @dpoliti.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2015/04/12/pope_angers_turkey_by_calling_armenian_genocide_a_ genocide.html
From: A. Papazian