Pope's Statement

From the BBC:
"Turkey anger at Pope Francis Armenian 'genocide' claim"

Turkey has recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis described the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in WW1 as "genocide". Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians were killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.  But Turkey has always disputed that figure and said the deaths were part of a civil conflict triggered by WW1. The row has continued to sour relations between Armenia and Turkey. The Pope made the comments at a Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite at Peter's Basilica, attended by the Armenian president and church leaders. He said that humanity had lived through "three massive and unprecedented tragedies" in the last century. "The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the 20th Century', struck your own Armenian people," he said, in a form of words used by a declaration by Pope John Paul II in 2001. Pope Francis also referred to the crimes "perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism" and said other genocides had followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and Bosnia.   He said it was his duty to honour the memories of those who were killed. "Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding without bandaging it," the Pope added. Armenia's President Serzh Sargsyan welcomed his comments, saying they sent a powerful message to the international community. Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating. Turkey has said the number of deaths was much smaller. Many of the victims were civilians deported en masse to barren desert regions where they died of starvation and thirst. Thousands also died in massacres. Most non-Turkish scholars of the events regard them as genocide. Among the other states which formally recognise them as genocide are Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay.

 

^ Pope Francis continues to make positive change in both the Catholic Church as well as around the world the way Pope John Paul II did. There is clear evidence that the mass murder of the Armenians in what was once the Ottoman Empire (ie Turkey) was organized and carried out by the Turks. They did not have gas chambers like the Germans did, but the Turks still managed to kill over a million innocent men, women and children and that fact should never be forgotten. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-32272604