ANKARA (ArmRadio)—The Turkish Foreign Ministry has slammed Pope Francis for using the word genocide during his trip to Armenia, accusing the Pontiff of “pursuing an unconditional commitment to Armenian perspective of the controversy.”
In a statement released on its official website Monday, the ministry said “Pope Francis’ bias on historical events and marginalizing attitude during his visit to Armenia does not comply with his frequently-emphasized efforts to build peace between different groups.”
The ministry said it was disappointing to see that Pope Francis had no contribution to establishing highly-needed peace and stability in Eastern Caucasus in the wake of recent clashes at the Karabakh line of contact.
The statement added that Pope Francis was instead expected to put efforts in establishing peace and friendship for the coming generations.
Turkey says Pope Francis’ description of the WWI mass killing of Armenians as genocide shows “the mentality of the Crusades,” the BBC reports.
The pontiff’s remarks have “no relation to reality,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said.
Pope Francis’ reference to the Armenian mass killing as “genocide” is a “political statement” that reflects a crusader mentality, Canikli said, according to state broadcaster TRT.
Pope Francis made the comments on Friday during a visit to the Armenian capital, Yerevan.
“This tragedy, this genocide, has unfortunately marked the start of a sad series of great catastrophes of the last century,” he said.
Canikli hit back late on Saturday, describing the remarks as “unfortunate.”
“It is possible to see all the hallmarks or reflections of the mentality of the Crusades in the Pope’s activities,” he said, quoted by the state-run Anadolu News Agency, referring to military campaigns in medieval times promoted by the papacy against Muslims in the Middle East.
Pope Francis also used the phrase last year, prompting Turkey to recall its envoy to the Vatican for 10 months.
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“The pontiff’s remarks have “no relation to reality,” Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli said.”
If that’s their position, then isn’t that the same as what they accuse the Armenian side of doing. I mean, on the one hand they’re accusing the Pontiff of “pursuing an unconditional commitment to Armenian perspective of the controversy.” yet on the other hand, they’re steadfast in their hardheaded position. Which is it ya Abeh?
Pope francis is known as washington pope. Why is he proclaming the genocide now? Could it be related to turkey moving closer to russia? Turkey just apologized to russia for shooting down their plane.
Turkey’s response demonstrates its great efforts to distance itself from humanity. It is misusing a peaceful visit by the Pope by calling him names. In its quest for a tyrannical totalitarian society where speech is suppressed, similar insults to their Muhammad, Imam or Erdogan would result in de jure jail time and de facto threats on personal life. It’s violent ISIS driven ideology only recognizes the sword and no diplomacy.
I invite their leaders to have their country’s laws applied to them when visiting the rest of the world.
What Pope Francis is trying to do is to find a way to reconcile Turkey with Armenians and save worldwide embarrassment, but unfortunately the di&k head Erdogan doesn’t get it.
I am an Apostolic Armenian woman who loves and appreciates the teachings of Pope Francis, for his devotion and dedication to help bring peace to this our tortured world. We can all learn by his example how to bring peace and love, humility and caring to the suffering of multitudes of people on this planet.
All this would have been put to rest and everyone would have moved on by now, if Turkey had acknowledged the Armenian genocide and was held accountable for it like Germany took responsibility for the holocaust. The fact that they have the gull to manipulate and cover up the truth, and strive to get away with committing one of the most heinous of crimes that prompted the creation of the very word “genocide” shows the inhuman uncivility of their nation. By denying the truth they continue to psychologically abuse the descendants of the first hand survivors of the genocide, which is basically 90% of the current Armenian people since they put to the sward 3/4 of our entire population from 1915 to 1923. And for the so called current Christian nations to not condemn the way they have reacted to the Pope’s words is disgraceful! The Vatican will soon make public its archives on the Armenian genocide where once again the world will get acquainted with the Isis like barbaric way the Turks massacred the Armenians. Shame on all countries who are standing in the way of justice by enabling Turkey to spread its denialism.