ANKARA (Diario ARMENIA).- After Pope Francis recognized the Armenian Genocide as “the first genocide of the twentieth century” on June 3th, the Foreign Minister of Turkey, Ahmet Davutoğlu, issued a statement saying that “Pope Francis’ expressions are absolutely unacceptable”.
Davutoğlu said that during the last years of the Ottoman Empire, “Turks, Armenians, and many others suffered immensely”, and accused Armenia of selecting the Armenian suffering and “distort it in several ways and attempts to present it as a genocide”.
In the statement, Davutoğlu tried to tell the Vatican what to do, saying that “what is expected of the office of the Pope, under the responsibility of the spiritual authority it has been endowed with, is to contribute to world peace instead of bringing out enmity from historical events”.
Finally, the Foreign Minister of Turkey considered that “Pope Francis’ expressions were absolutely unacceptable” and asked the Holy See to “refrain from taking steps that may cause harm to our bilateral relations that may be difficult to repair”.
“The Turkish state, the same that censors all those who speak about the Armenian Genocide with its Criminal Code, intended to convince the international community that the pope acted under the influence of the Armenian community of Buenos Aires”, said Carolina Karaguezian, director of the Buenos Aires region of the Armenian National Committee of South America in a statement. “The Turkish state attempts to impose denial and censorship, not only to their own citizens, but also to everybody who understands that the road to peace between nations is memory, truth and justice”, she added.
