Lombardi: Pope in Armenia to build peace and
reconciliation
(Vatican Radio) The Director
of the Vatican Press Office has strongly dismissed Turkish accusations that
Pope Francis adopted a “Crusades” mentality when he used the word “genocide” to
describe the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians a century ago.
Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ was
answering questions by journalists reporting on the papal journey in Armenia.
The questions pertained to an
angry statement late Saturday by Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli
following the Pope’s use of the word “genocide” when referring to the
Ottoman-era slaughter of Armenians.
Turkey in fact rejects the
term genocide, 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.
Nurettin Canikli called the
Pope’s comments ``greatly unfortunate'' and said they bore the hallmarks of the
``mentality of the Crusades.''
But responding to Canikli's
comments, Fr Lombardi said that nothing in Francis' texts or actions had
suggested a Crusades-like mentality or spirit.
“His is a spirit of
dialogue”- Lombardi said – “of building peace, of building bridges and not
walls.”
“The Pope – he added – is not
doing Crusades”, “he has said no words against the Turkish people”.'
And Lombardi underlined
the fact that Francis’ three-day visit to the Orthodox nation was one of peace
and reconciliation with repeated calls for unity with Armenia’s Oriental
Orthodox Church, a visit to the nation’s closed western border with Turkey and
a joint declaration with the Apostolic Church leader.
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