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POPE: ARMENIANS WERE VICTIMS OF 'FIRST GENOCIDE OF THE 20TH CENTURY'
dpa-AFX International ProFeed
April 12, 2015 Sunday 2:52 PM GMT
By Alvise Armellini, dpa Vatican City (dpa-AFX) - Armenians were the
victims of 'the first genocide of the 20th century,' Pope Francis said
Sunday, repeating remarks that, in the past, have triggered protests
by the Turkish government. 'In the past century, our human family has
lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,' Francis said
at the start of a special remembrance mass in St Peter's Basilica for
the mass killing of Armenians at the hands of Turkish Ottoman troops
that began in 1915. 'The first, which is widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century, struck your own Armenian people, the
first Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks,' the pontiff said. Francis said
the other two genocides of the last century 'were perpetrated by
Nazism and Stalinism' and went on to say the world was in the midst
of another genocide, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
The leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Supreme Patriarch Karekin
II, thanked the pope at the end an elaborate service that lasted two
and a half hours.
'The Armenian genocide is an unforgettable and undeniable fact of
history, deeply rooted in the annals of modern history and in the
common consciousness of the Armenian people. Therefore, any attempt
to erase it from history and from our common memory is doomed to
fail,' Karekin said. During World War I, up to 1.5 million people
are estimated to have been slaughtered in Ottoman land, in events
that are recognized as a genocide by many countries, but not Turkey,
the successor state of the Ottoman Empire. Official commemorations of
the 1915-16 genocide are to start on April 24 in Armenia. 'It is the
responsibility not only of the Armenian people and the universal Church
to recall all that has taken place, but of the entire human family,'
the pope said in a written message delivered to Armenian religious and
political leaders after mass. He also prayed for Armenia and Turkey to
make amends. 'May God grant that the people of Armenia and Turkey take
up again the path of reconciliation, and may peace also spring forth in
Nagorno-Karabakh,' said Francis, a reference to a contested Armenian
enclave in Azerbaijan. It is not the first time that the Vatican has
used the word 'genocide' to describe the events of 100 years ago. On
Sunday, the pope quoted a joint 2000 declaration from his predecessor,
Saint John Paul II, and Karekin II. Francis used the same formulation
in a June 2013 meeting with Armenian representatives at the Vatican. At
the time, the Turkish Foreign Ministry criticized the papal remarks as
'unacceptable' and warned the Vatican against 'making steps that could
have irreparable consequences on our ties.' 'What is expected from
the papacy, under the responsibility of its spiritual office, is to
contribute to world peace instead of raising animosity over historical
events,' the ministry added. In Sunday's mass, which was attended by
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Francis also gave a special title
to Saint Gregory of Narek, a medieval monk seen as the greatest poet
and mystic of the Armenian nation. He was elevated to the position of
a doctor of the Church, making him one of only 36 saintly masters of
Catholic teaching, along with other well-known religious figures such
as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine. Gregory was born from a
family of writers in around 950 and died about 55 years later. He is
chiefly remembered for the Book of Lamentations, a compendium of 95
prayers considered a gem of Christian literature. The monastery where
he lived, as well as his grave, were destroyed during the Armenian
genocide. Copyright dpa
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
dpa-AFX International ProFeed
April 12, 2015 Sunday 2:52 PM GMT
By Alvise Armellini, dpa Vatican City (dpa-AFX) - Armenians were the
victims of 'the first genocide of the 20th century,' Pope Francis said
Sunday, repeating remarks that, in the past, have triggered protests
by the Turkish government. 'In the past century, our human family has
lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies,' Francis said
at the start of a special remembrance mass in St Peter's Basilica for
the mass killing of Armenians at the hands of Turkish Ottoman troops
that began in 1915. 'The first, which is widely considered the first
genocide of the 20th century, struck your own Armenian people, the
first Christian nation, as well as Catholic and Orthodox Syrians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans and Greeks,' the pontiff said. Francis said
the other two genocides of the last century 'were perpetrated by
Nazism and Stalinism' and went on to say the world was in the midst
of another genocide, the persecution of Christians in the Middle East.
The leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Supreme Patriarch Karekin
II, thanked the pope at the end an elaborate service that lasted two
and a half hours.
'The Armenian genocide is an unforgettable and undeniable fact of
history, deeply rooted in the annals of modern history and in the
common consciousness of the Armenian people. Therefore, any attempt
to erase it from history and from our common memory is doomed to
fail,' Karekin said. During World War I, up to 1.5 million people
are estimated to have been slaughtered in Ottoman land, in events
that are recognized as a genocide by many countries, but not Turkey,
the successor state of the Ottoman Empire. Official commemorations of
the 1915-16 genocide are to start on April 24 in Armenia. 'It is the
responsibility not only of the Armenian people and the universal Church
to recall all that has taken place, but of the entire human family,'
the pope said in a written message delivered to Armenian religious and
political leaders after mass. He also prayed for Armenia and Turkey to
make amends. 'May God grant that the people of Armenia and Turkey take
up again the path of reconciliation, and may peace also spring forth in
Nagorno-Karabakh,' said Francis, a reference to a contested Armenian
enclave in Azerbaijan. It is not the first time that the Vatican has
used the word 'genocide' to describe the events of 100 years ago. On
Sunday, the pope quoted a joint 2000 declaration from his predecessor,
Saint John Paul II, and Karekin II. Francis used the same formulation
in a June 2013 meeting with Armenian representatives at the Vatican. At
the time, the Turkish Foreign Ministry criticized the papal remarks as
'unacceptable' and warned the Vatican against 'making steps that could
have irreparable consequences on our ties.' 'What is expected from
the papacy, under the responsibility of its spiritual office, is to
contribute to world peace instead of raising animosity over historical
events,' the ministry added. In Sunday's mass, which was attended by
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, Francis also gave a special title
to Saint Gregory of Narek, a medieval monk seen as the greatest poet
and mystic of the Armenian nation. He was elevated to the position of
a doctor of the Church, making him one of only 36 saintly masters of
Catholic teaching, along with other well-known religious figures such
as Saint Thomas Aquinas and Saint Augustine. Gregory was born from a
family of writers in around 950 and died about 55 years later. He is
chiefly remembered for the Book of Lamentations, a compendium of 95
prayers considered a gem of Christian literature. The monastery where
he lived, as well as his grave, were destroyed during the Armenian
genocide. Copyright dpa
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress