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REACTION FROM POPE FRANCIS' ARMENIAN 'GENOCIDE' COMMENTS: ANGER, INDIFFERENCE
Business Insider
April 14 2015
Tuvan Gumruku and Ece Toksabay, Reuters
(Reuters) - When Pope Francis became the first pontiff to publicly
call the 1915 Armenian massacre a genocide this weekend, the reaction
from Ankara was swift and irate: it summoned the Vatican ambassador
for a dressing down and recalled its own envoy.
Reaction in the Turkish media on Monday ranged from indignant to
indifferent, depending on how close the newspaper is to the government.
The response on Turkish street corners was muted, with many Turks
dismissing the spat as empty politics and voicing a desire to leave
history in the past.
Francis sparked the diplomatic row on Sunday by calling the massacre of
up to 1.5 million Armenians "the first genocide of the 20th century",
prompting Turkey to accuse him of inciting hatred.
Muslim Turkey agrees that Christian Armenians died in clashes with
Ottoman soldiers beginning in April 1915, when some Armenians lived
in the empire ruled from Istanbul, but denies hundreds of thousands
were killed and that this amounted to genocide.
"The pope's statements, which are far from historical and judicial
facts, cannot be accepted," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said
on Twitter. "Religious offices are not places to incite hatred and
revenge with baseless accusations."
The fact that Vatican City is the world's smallest state may have
precluded further repercussions. When France's parliament voted in
2011 to make Armenian genocide denial a crime, Turkey withdrew its
ambassador, suspended joint military maneuvers and stopped political
contacts for a while.
Sitting on a ferry off the western port of Izmir, a man who declined to
give his full name said it was time to stop bickering about the past.
"Every year, it's the same thing. April comes and all the Western
politicians are talking about genocide. There is no such animosity
between the people of these two countries," said Ibrahim, 48, taking a
sip of tea. "We must leave history behind us and focus on the future."
Armenia and its large diaspora in the United States argue that Turkey
has not fully owned up to its wartime past.
"If you ask any ordinary Armenian or Turk, I am positive we do not
care about this as much as people think we do," said Dursun Okan,
a 27-year-old banker.
Still others saw the pope's remarks as interference by foreigners
and wondered whether the United States, a traditional ally of Turkey,
would eventually use the word "genocide".
Unlike almost two dozen European and South American states that use
the term, Washington avoids it and has warned legislators that Ankara
could cut off military cooperation if they voted to adopt it.
"I believe Obama will call it a genocide as well, considering the
influence of the Armenian population in the United States," said
Serhat, a university student in Ankara. "It would surprise me if no
one else called it a genocide."
Pope Francis appeared to refer to his use of the term "genocide"
on Monday, saying in a sermon that "today the Church's message is
one of the path of frankness, the path of Christian courage."
(Editing by Tom Heneghan)
http://www.businessinsider.com/reaction-from-pope-francis-armenian-genocide-comments-anger-indifference-2015-4
Business Insider
April 14 2015
Tuvan Gumruku and Ece Toksabay, Reuters
(Reuters) - When Pope Francis became the first pontiff to publicly
call the 1915 Armenian massacre a genocide this weekend, the reaction
from Ankara was swift and irate: it summoned the Vatican ambassador
for a dressing down and recalled its own envoy.
Reaction in the Turkish media on Monday ranged from indignant to
indifferent, depending on how close the newspaper is to the government.
The response on Turkish street corners was muted, with many Turks
dismissing the spat as empty politics and voicing a desire to leave
history in the past.
Francis sparked the diplomatic row on Sunday by calling the massacre of
up to 1.5 million Armenians "the first genocide of the 20th century",
prompting Turkey to accuse him of inciting hatred.
Muslim Turkey agrees that Christian Armenians died in clashes with
Ottoman soldiers beginning in April 1915, when some Armenians lived
in the empire ruled from Istanbul, but denies hundreds of thousands
were killed and that this amounted to genocide.
"The pope's statements, which are far from historical and judicial
facts, cannot be accepted," Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said
on Twitter. "Religious offices are not places to incite hatred and
revenge with baseless accusations."
The fact that Vatican City is the world's smallest state may have
precluded further repercussions. When France's parliament voted in
2011 to make Armenian genocide denial a crime, Turkey withdrew its
ambassador, suspended joint military maneuvers and stopped political
contacts for a while.
Sitting on a ferry off the western port of Izmir, a man who declined to
give his full name said it was time to stop bickering about the past.
"Every year, it's the same thing. April comes and all the Western
politicians are talking about genocide. There is no such animosity
between the people of these two countries," said Ibrahim, 48, taking a
sip of tea. "We must leave history behind us and focus on the future."
Armenia and its large diaspora in the United States argue that Turkey
has not fully owned up to its wartime past.
"If you ask any ordinary Armenian or Turk, I am positive we do not
care about this as much as people think we do," said Dursun Okan,
a 27-year-old banker.
Still others saw the pope's remarks as interference by foreigners
and wondered whether the United States, a traditional ally of Turkey,
would eventually use the word "genocide".
Unlike almost two dozen European and South American states that use
the term, Washington avoids it and has warned legislators that Ankara
could cut off military cooperation if they voted to adopt it.
"I believe Obama will call it a genocide as well, considering the
influence of the Armenian population in the United States," said
Serhat, a university student in Ankara. "It would surprise me if no
one else called it a genocide."
Pope Francis appeared to refer to his use of the term "genocide"
on Monday, saying in a sermon that "today the Church's message is
one of the path of frankness, the path of Christian courage."
(Editing by Tom Heneghan)
http://www.businessinsider.com/reaction-from-pope-francis-armenian-genocide-comments-anger-indifference-2015-4