Turkey says Pope shows “crusader mentality” by calling 1915 killings genocide

At the Saturday morning ceremony, Pope Francis chatted with descendants of Armenian orphans who were sheltered at the papal summer residence south of Rome at the start of the 20th century.

Traveling June 25 to Gyumri, a city with a significant Catholic population and one still bearing the scars of an natural disaster nearly three decades ago, Pope Francis once again praised the steadfast faith of the Armenian people.

This sparked a diplomatic crisis with Turkey at the time and who don’t consider the Ottoman crimes to be “genocide”, but rather consequences of war.

While the Pope and president were meeting privately, Armenian public television broadcast images from the Armenian memorial prayer service Pope Francis presided over at the Vatican a year ago.

The Pope, who is due to stay in Armenia, in the southern Caucasus, until next Sunday, expressed his desire for humanity to learn from these tragedies.

Turkey rejects the term, saying the 1.5 million deaths cited by historians is an inflated figure and that people died on both sides as the Ottoman Empire collapsed amid World War I. When Francis first used it previous year, Turkey withdrew its ambassador for 10 months and accused Francis of spreading lies.

Francis drew a standing ovation upon his arrival Friday in Armenia when he denounced what he called the ideologically twisted, planned “genocide” of Armenians starting in 1915.

YEREVAN, June 25 (Reuters) – Pope Francis urged Armenia and Turkey on Saturday to seek reconciliation and to shun “the illusory power of vengeance” a century after 1.5 million Armenians were massacred in the dying days of the Ottoman Empire.

Armenia is considered the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as a state religion in the early 4th century.

On Friday night in a speech to the president, the government and diplomats, Francis departed from his prepared text to use the word “genocide”, a description that infuriated Turkey when he first used it a year ago.

“It’s so sad how, in this case and in the other two, the great worldwide powers looked the other way”, he added, referring to the subsequent horrors of Nazism and Stalinism.

Most historians now describe the systematic extermination of almost 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916 as genocide, and over 20 nations already recognize it as such.

“There is no reason not to use this word in this case”, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told reporters.

A solid, sorrow-tested Christian faith gives believers the strength to overcome even the most horrific adversity, forgive one’s enemies and live in peace, Pope Francis has said. He was welcomed there by the President of the nation’s Republic Serzh Sargsyn and the Catholicos of All Armenia Karekin II. About 93% of its population belongs to the Armenian Apostolic Church, an Oriental Orthodox Church.