Pope Francis denounced what he called the ideologically twisted and planned "genocide" of Armenians by Ottoman-era Turks a century ago as he arrived in Armenia today for a deeply symbolic weekend visit to mark the centenary of the massacre, AP reports.
In the most carefully watched speech of his three-day trip, Francis ad-libbed the politically charged word "genocide" to his prepared text that had conspicuously left it out.
And rather than merely repeat what he said last year — that the slaughter was “considered the first genocide of the twentieth century” — Francis declared it a genocide flat out, setting the stage for another Turkish protest after it withdrew its ambassador last year and accused Francis of spreading “lies”. Ottoman Turks slaughtered 1.5 million Armenians in the 1915 genocide.
"Sadly that tragedy, that genocide, was the first of the deplorable series of catastrophes of the past century, made possible by twisted racial, ideological or religious aims that darkened the minds of the tormentors even to the point of planning the annihilation of entire peoples," he said.
"It's so sad how, in this case and in the other two, the great international powers looked the other way," he added, in apparent reference to the subsequent horrors of Nazism and Stalinism.
In the run-up to the visit, the Vatican had refrained from using the term "genocide", mindful of Turkish opposition to the political and financial implications of the word, given Armenian claims for reparations.
But Francis added the word at the last minute in a speech at the presidential palace to President Serzh Sargsyan, Armenian political and religious leaders and the diplomatic corps. They gave him a standing ovation.
With the Apostolic patriarch Karekin II by his side, Francis urged all Christians to unite to prevent religion from being exploited and manipulated today, a reference to the current Islamic extremist attacks on Christians in the Middle East.
President Sargsyan, Karekin and a handful of other officials greeted Francis on the tarmac of the Yerevan airport in a low-key welcome ceremony. The Pope will have another opportunity to pay respects to the victims of the slaughter when he visits Armenia's genocide memorial tomorrow.
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