Pope describes Armenian WWI killings as 'genocide'
Pope Francis has described as "genocide" the mass killings of Armenians during the Ottoman Empire era in World War I.
"In the past century our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies," he said during a Sunday solemn mass in Saint Peter's Basilica to mark the mass killings.
Referring to a statement signed by John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001, he added that “the first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the 20th century', struck your own Armenian people."
Ankara rejects the term “genocide” and instead says the 300,000 to 500,000 Armenians, and at least as many Turks, who perished between 1915 and 1917 were the casualties of World War I.
Armenia, however, says that up to 1.5 million of its people were killed and demands that their death must be recognized as genocide.
The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church added, "We recall the centenary of that tragic event, that immense and senseless slaughter whose cruelty your forebears had to endure."
"It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honor their memory, for whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester," Francis said.
Armenia, Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Italy, Russia and Uruguay formally recognize the incident as genocide.
DB/HMV
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