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TURKEY RECALLS VATICAN ENVOY OVER POPE GENOCIDE COMMENT
Al Jazeera - Qatar
April 12, 2015 Sunday 4:38 PM GMT
Foreign ministry says remarks by Pope Francis on Armenian massacre
by Ottomans are null and void to Turkish people.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for consultations
in an escalating diplomatic row over Pope Francis' use of the word
"genocide" to describe the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
during World War I. "Our ambassador to the Vatican Mr Mehmet Pacaci
is being recalled back to Turkey for consultations," the foreign
ministry said in a statement on Sunday after earlier summoning the
Vatican's envoy to Ankara to the ministry. The ministry said in a
statement that the pope's comments were "null and void" to the Turkish
people. The Turkish people would not recognise the pope's statement
"which is controversial in every aspect, which is based on prejudice,
which distorts history and reduces the pains suffered in Anatolia
under the conditions of the First World War to members of just one
religion", read the statement. Francis made the speech at a mass in
Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre
of as many as 1.5 million Armenians.
"It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for
whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester.
Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it," he said. While Francis 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. The denial Turkey
accepts that many Christian Armenians died in clashes with Ottoman
soldiers beginning in 1915, when Armenia was part of the empire ruled
from Istanbul, but denies 1.5 million people were killed and that
the incidents amounted to genocide. Pope John Paul II and Armenian
Apostolic Church Supreme Patriarch Kerekin II called it "the first
genocide of the 20th century" in a joint written statement in 2001.
Francis, who has disregarded many aspects of protocol since becoming
pope two years ago, is believed to have uttered the phrase before,
but only in a private conversation with an Armenian delegation in
2013, prompting a strong protest from Ankara. Francis' comments were
published by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's office on Sunday. "We
are deeply grateful to His Holiness Pope Francis for the idea of
this unprecedented liturgy ... which symbolises our solidarity with
the people of the Christian world," Sargsyan said in a speech at a
Vatican dinner on Saturday evening.
GRAPHIC: Foreign ministry says remarks by Pope Francis on Armenian
massacre by Ottomans are null and void to Turkish people.
Al Jazeera - Qatar
April 12, 2015 Sunday 4:38 PM GMT
Foreign ministry says remarks by Pope Francis on Armenian massacre
by Ottomans are null and void to Turkish people.
Turkey has recalled its ambassador to the Vatican for consultations
in an escalating diplomatic row over Pope Francis' use of the word
"genocide" to describe the massacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
during World War I. "Our ambassador to the Vatican Mr Mehmet Pacaci
is being recalled back to Turkey for consultations," the foreign
ministry said in a statement on Sunday after earlier summoning the
Vatican's envoy to Ankara to the ministry. The ministry said in a
statement that the pope's comments were "null and void" to the Turkish
people. The Turkish people would not recognise the pope's statement
"which is controversial in every aspect, which is based on prejudice,
which distorts history and reduces the pains suffered in Anatolia
under the conditions of the First World War to members of just one
religion", read the statement. Francis made the speech at a mass in
Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the 100th anniversary of the massacre
of as many as 1.5 million Armenians.
"It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for
whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester.
Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it," he said. While Francis 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. The denial Turkey
accepts that many Christian Armenians died in clashes with Ottoman
soldiers beginning in 1915, when Armenia was part of the empire ruled
from Istanbul, but denies 1.5 million people were killed and that
the incidents amounted to genocide. Pope John Paul II and Armenian
Apostolic Church Supreme Patriarch Kerekin II called it "the first
genocide of the 20th century" in a joint written statement in 2001.
Francis, who has disregarded many aspects of protocol since becoming
pope two years ago, is believed to have uttered the phrase before,
but only in a private conversation with an Armenian delegation in
2013, prompting a strong protest from Ankara. Francis' comments were
published by Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan's office on Sunday. "We
are deeply grateful to His Holiness Pope Francis for the idea of
this unprecedented liturgy ... which symbolises our solidarity with
the people of the Christian world," Sargsyan said in a speech at a
Vatican dinner on Saturday evening.
GRAPHIC: Foreign ministry says remarks by Pope Francis on Armenian
massacre by Ottomans are null and void to Turkish people.