POPE WILL MARK 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

[Yervant1]

POPE WILL MARK 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Catholic Culture
Aug 21 2014

Catholic World News - August 21, 2014

Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass next August to mark the 100th
anniversary of the Armenian genocide, an Argentine cardinal has
revealed.

Speaking at the Armenian Cahtolic cathedral in Buenos Aires, Cardinal
Mario Poli said that the Pontiff will celebrate the commemorative
Mass in St. Peter's basilica. The date for the Mass has not yet
been announced.

Over 1 million Armenians died in 1915 when the Ottoman government
of Turkey massacred thousands of ethnic Armenians, established
forced-labor camps, and deported hundreds of thousands of the
Christian minority group--many of whom died on forced marches in the
process. The government of Turkey still denies the reality of the
genocidal campaign.

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=22359

[onjig]

Good for him.

[Yervant1]

Lecture dedicated to Armenian Genocide and Human Rights to be held in
Buenos Aires

10:35, 22 August, 2014


YEREVAN, AUGUST 22, ARMENPRESS. "Racism and the World's Forgetfulness"
psychological lecture-discussion dedicated to Human Rights and
Armenian Genocide will held on August 23 in Buenos Aires's Center
Foundation psychological center. As reports "Armenpress" citing Prensa
Armenia website, the author of the initiative is Center Foundation
psychological center.

Researcher and lecturer Alejandro Kaufman, lawyer Anna Arzumanyan,
director Ignaiso Dimatia, the Head of Armenian
National Committee of Buenos Aires Carolina Karagyozyan and
psychoanalyst Pablo Vilar will deliver lectures on the subject.

The lectures will be followed by Iganiso Dimatia's "Dialogue without
Borders" film which reflects on the Armenian Genocide.


http://armenpress.am/eng/news/773336/lecture-dedicated-to-armenian-genocide-and-human-rights-to-be-held-in-buenos-aires.html

[Yervant1]

POPE FRANCIS TO VISIT ARMENIA IN MARCH 2015

15:43 24.09.2014

ARMENIA, POPE FRANCIS

ARTAK BARSEGHYAN
PUBLIC RADIO OF ARMENIA

Pope Francis will visit Armenia in March 2015, Chancellor of the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin, His Grace Bishop Arshak Khachatrian told
reporters today. He said it's going to be both a state and religious
visit. A prayer in memory of the Armenian genocide victims will be
held at the Mother See within the framework of the visit.

His Grace noted that the Armenian Church and the Vatican enjoy warm
relations today and added that the Pope's visit will be a milestone
for the further deepening of relations.

He reminded that the late Pope John Paul II had recognized the Armenian
Genocide and added that Pope Francis has the same approach towards
the issue.

His Grace Bishop Arshak Khachatrian also summed up the results of
the 5th Armenian Church Representative Assembly held at the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin September 18-21. He said issues related to
the organization of events dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the
Armenian Genocide were discussed.

He said the Mother See plans to organize 18 events, two of which -
Blessing of the Holy Chrism and canonization of the Armenian Genocide
victims - are included in the list of state-level events.

"The Catholicos of All Armenians is expected to participate in
inter-religious events to be organized in cities with large Armenian
communities, such as Washington, Tabriz and Moscow, as well as in
religious centers of sister churches," he said.

Bishop Arshak Khachatrian refrained from assessing the likelihood of
return of the Patriarchate of Sis, but said the Mother See would do
its best to support the initiative.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/09/24/pope-francis-to-visit-armenia-in-march/

[Yervant1]

13:38 01/12/2014 » IN THE WORLD

Pope Francis: I wish Armenian-Turkish border opened

On his way back from a three-day Turkey trip, Pope Francis spoke to journalists about the Armenian-Turkish border, saying that it is in his heart.
“The Armenian-Turkish border is in my heart. I wish the border opened.
“I know that there are geopolitical problems in the region, which complicate the opening of the borders.
“Let’s pray for the reconciliation of these two nations,” he said, according to Turkish newspaper Yeni Akit.
Pope Francis also said that he visited the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul Mesrop Mutafyan at the Armenian hospital Holy Savior. The closed-door meeting lasted 15 minutes. The Pope said that the Armenian Patriarch is seriously ill.

Source: Panorama.am

[Arpa]

Why are all the Popes are staying in queue պոչ են բռնում to visit furkey?
(Etymology: from French queue, literally, "tail," from Latin coda, cauda "tail" )
Is not Armenia the FIRST CHRISTIAN SCHMRISTIAN NATION?***
The only time a sitting Pope was in Armenia was iin Sept. 1001 (Pope John Paul II) to celebrate the 1700th Anniversary, when, suddenly his sojourn was blown away, when the News was blacked out with news of the attack at the WTC/the TWIN TOWERS of NY.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks
Please note this phrase.
(were a series of four coordinated terrorist attacks launched by the Islamic terrorist group)
How can we forget this. furk?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehmet_Ali_Ağca

Edited December 1, 2014 by Yervant1

[Yervant1]

POPE FRANCIS EXPECTS GESTURES ON ARMENIAN GENOCIDE CENTENNIAL, HOPES TURKEY WILL OPEN THE ARMENIA BORDER

09:23, 01 Dec 2014

Pope Francis says he hopes Turkey will open its border with Armenia.

The Pope made the remark Nov. 30 during a 45-minute news conference
on his flight to Rome after a three-day visit to Turkey, the Catholic
News Service reports.

The Pope praised Erdogan's 2013 statement on the 1915 mass killings
of Armenians by Ottoman forces. He voiced hope that other gestures
over the coming anniversary year would bring the two nations nearer,
and he specifically voiced hope that Turkey would open its border
with Armenia.

The Pope also said he told Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Nov.

28 that "it would be beautiful if all Islamic leaders -- whether
they be political leaders, religious leaders, academic leaders --
would say clearly that they condemn (terrorism), because that will
help the majority of Islamic people to say, 'that's true,'" and show
non-Muslims that Islam is a religion of peace.

"I sincerely believe that you cannot say that all Muslims
are terrorists just as you cannot say that all Christians are
fundamentalists; every religion has these little groups," the pope
said.

http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/12/01/pope-francis-expects-gestures-on-armenian-genocide-centennial-hopes-turkey-will-open-the-armenia-border/

[Yervant1]

POPE FRANCIS WAS NOT TOUGH ENOUGH WITH TURKEY

Catholic Herald, UK
Dec 1 2014

by Fr Alexander Lucie-Smith

On the questions of ISIS and Armenia, President Erdogan seemed to be
given a pass by the Pope

The Pope's press conference on the way back from Turkey gives us some
important insights into what went on behind the scenes of his visit.

The speeches are all out in the open, of course, and published,
but the private conversations might really be what really counts in
this context.

First of all, what went on between the Pope and the President of
Turkey, Mr Erdogan? As we know, the President and his civil servant
who runs religious affairs in Turkey, brought up the question of
Islamophobia in the West, which they see as an important problem,
and, moreover, one that the Pope can do something about. The Pope
seemingly countered this with a challenge to the Muslim world, that
they should do more to condemn terrorism. That is something that we
have heard many a time. The Pope tells us that he sincerely believes
that not all Muslims are terrorists just as he believes that not all
Christians are fundamentalists, and that every religion contains
"these little groups". This of course reveals a difficulty. Yes,
of course there are fundamentalists on both sides. Syria is full of
Islamic fundamentalists, as is Iraq; Alabama and Mississippi are full
of Christian fundamentalists. But these two types of fundamentalism are
not comparable. And is ISIS a "little group"? Are the Taliban? Again,
is there a single Christian fundamentalist group that actually controls
a swathe of territory anywhere on earth and coerces those who do not
agree with it?

All this is important, because the Turkish government allows ISIS to
import arms and people into Syria through Turkish territory. It stands
by and watches while ISIS and the Kurds fight it out in Kobane. If
Turkey is to be a bridge of understanding between East and West,
this seems a pretty strange way of going about it. I doubt the Turks
care for ISIS overmuch, but they hate Assad and the Kurds the more;
any conversation that Pope had with Erdogan was overshadowed by the
reality of politics in the Middle East. Moreover, the Turks, like
others, seem wedded to the position that there is a moral equivalence
between Islamic and Christian fundamentalisms. If that is the case,
and I think it is, then they were given a pass by the Pope.

Then there was the Armenian question, and in particular the question of
the Armenian Genocide, the hundredth anniversary of which falls next
year. Again, this was seemingly raised by the Pope, but from what he
says in the plane, one gets the distinct impression that Mr Erdogan
did not give an inch, and neither is the Pope prepared to push him
further. This is a huge pity. It will come as a major disappointment
to all Armenians and all Catholic Armenians in particular. It will
disappoint all those who feel, such as myself, that there can be
no justice without truth and that the Armenians are victims of a
continuing historical injustice. It will disappoint many Turks,
those disenchanted with Mr Erdogan, too.

Finally, there is what went on behind the scenes at the Patriarchate
in the Phanar. The Pope makes reference to those "conservatives" on
both sides, Catholics and Orthodox, who are "resistant to ecumenism",
that is, I assume, opposed to a rapprochement between the Churches.

This may well be diplomatic, but it is also rather misleading. I
personally cannot think of a single Catholic bishop, conservative or
not, who has spoken in public about the lack of desirability of better
relations with the Orthodox. If there is one, then please point him
out to me. To imply that there are Catholics who do not want closer
relations with Orthodoxy and indeed re-union, is simply untrue. So,
why did the Pope imply it?

The remarks the Pope made on the plane are perplexing. The President of
Turkey may well feel that he has scored a major success, thanks to this
visit. It has enabled him to forget for a few moments the increasing
criticism he faces at home and abroad, and given him an opportunity to
meet the Pope and pose as a respected statesman. To put it crudely, it
legitimises him. But what is in it for the Catholic Church, I wonder.

http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/commentandblogs/2014/12/01/pope-francis-was-not-tough-enough-with-turkey/

[Yervant1]

ARMENIAN CHURCHES' LEADERS TO BE ON HAND AT APRIL CHURCH MASS IN THE VATICAN

10:57, 31.03.2015

The spiritual leaders of the Armenian Christian churches will
participate in the April church liturgy to be offered in the St.

Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, reported La Stampa daily of Italy.

Accordingly, Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II, Catholicos of
the Great House of Cilicia Aram I, and Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX
Tarmouni of the Armenian Catholic Church, will attend this mass.

The climax of the Armenian Genocide centennial memorial church events
will be the genocide victims' collective canonization ceremony, which
will take place on April 23 in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Representatives from 38 Christian churches and organizations have
already confirmed their attendance to this event.

And on the same day at 19:15 (7:15pm), which symbolizes the genocide in
1915, the bells will sound one hundred times in the Armenian Apostolic
Churches throughout the world.

Armenia News - NEWS.am http://news.am/eng/news/259619.html

[Yervant1]

WITH ARMENIAN CATHOLICS, POPE WILL DECLARE NEW 'DOCTOR OF CHURCH'

CatholicPhilly.com
April 1 2015

By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Pope Francis formally will proclaim a
10th-century Armenian monk as a doctor of the church when he celebrates
a liturgy April 12 with leaders and faithful of the Armenian Catholic
Church.

The Vatican had announced in February the pope's decision to confer
the title "doctor of the church" on St. Gregory of Narek. The title
indicates that the saint's writings are considered to offer key
theological insights for the faith.

Earlier, the Vatican had announced that the pope would celebrate
a liturgy April 12 with members of the Armenian community, who are
preparing to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian genocide
April 24. An estimated 1.5 million Armenians -- more than half the
Armenian population at the time -- died in a forced evacuation from
their traditional territory in the Ottoman-Turkish Empire from 1915
to 1918. Turkey rejects the accusation of genocide, saying the deaths
were due largely to disease and famine.

Pope Francis will concelebrate the liturgy with Armenian Catholic
Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, the Vatican said.

St. Gregory of Narek is considered one of the leading figures of
Armenian theology and thought, and many of his prayers are included
in the Armenian Divine Liturgy.

He was born in 950 in the Armenian town of Andzevatsik, located in
present-day Turkey. He entered a monastery at a young age and was
ordained a priest at 25. He lived at the monastery at Narek his whole
priestly life and taught at the monastic school.

His best-known writings include a commentary on the Song of Songs
and his "Book of Lamentations," now commonly known as "Narek."

"Narek" is considered his masterpiece. It includes 95 prayers and
has been translated into more than 30 languages.

St. Gregory died in Narek around 1005. His feast day in the Armenian
churches is Oct. 13; he is remembered in the Roman Catholic Church
Feb. 27.

Designating him a doctor of the church, Pope Francis will bring to
36 the number of saintly theologians to hold the title.

http://catholicphilly.com/2015/04/news/world-news/with-armenian-catholics-pope-will-declare-new-doctor-of-church/

[Yervant1]

17:04 08/04/2015 » SOCIETY

Pope to celebrate Mass to mark 100 years since Armenian Genocide



On April 12th, Pope Francis will celebrate a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica to mark 100 years since the Armenian genocide, according to Rome Reports.

Mikayel Minasyan, Armenian Ambassador to the Holy See, hopes the Mass isn't seen as something political- but that's easier said than done. The mere fact that the Pope has agreed to celebrate it, speaks volumes.

"For Armenians, this centennial won't feel much different a year, two, five, six, seven or even 200 years from now. Armenians have been fighting their own inner war against injustice and ignorance for 100 years. This anniversary is important for the world, for Armenians, at this point, it doesn't really change much, but it's a way for the world to hear the truth,” Mr Minasyan said.

Two years ago, even the Pope himself described it as the first genocide of the modern era, during an audience with the Patriarch of Cilicia, Nerses Bedros XIX.

Armenia's ambassador says history is now repeating itself. "Christians from Iraq and Syria are using the same escape routes that Armenians used 100 years ago. FLASH Why? Because governments deny history, they avoid speaking about the truth. They use cynicism to address political and historical facts.”

During Sunday's Mass, which will follow the Armenian rite, the Pope will officially declare Armenian Saint, Gregory of Narek, as a Doctor of the Church.

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

14:07 17/04/2015 » POLITICS

Italian PM: Pope’s statement was absolutely righteous

The Pope’s statement on the recognition of the Armenian Genocide was absolutely righteous, and if Turkey wants to join the European Union (EU), it must adopt the European values, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said at the meeting with the students at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C, News.am reports citing Italy’s La Stampa daily.
“I support Turkey’s European integration,” Renzi said and added: “But Ankara needs to make a decision and accept that it shares our values.”

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

TURKISH HACKERS KNOCK OUT VATICAN WEBSITE IN PROTEST OF POPE'S GENOCIDE COMMENTS

Breitbart News
April 16 2015

by Thomas D. Williams, Ph.D.16 Apr 20158

Access to the Vatican website, www.vatican.va, was blocked twice in
the space of 24 hours this week following Pope Francis's comments
Sunday regarding the Armenian genocide.

The Vatican website was hacked during the night between Monday
and Tuesday, after Pope Francis described the Turkish massacre of
1.5 million Armenians a century ago as "the first genocide of the
twentieth century."

A London-based group that calls itself THTHerakles has taken credit
for the cyber attack.

The Vatican website was offline for several hours following the
attack, until the problem was solved Tuesday morning. But on Wednesday
afternoon, it was offline again.

According to the specialist publication "Techworm," the attack was
an unofficial retaliation to the words of the Pope.

A tweet written in Turkish on the group's Twitter feed read, "Dear
Pope you should have defended your website as much as you defended
the Armenians."

The hacker stated that the Pope's comments were "unacceptable" for a
respected religious leader. "Taking sides and calling what happened
with the Armenians genocide is not true. ... We want Pope [Francis]
to apologize for his words or we will make sure the website remains
offline," he said.

The Pope's comments Sunday produced immediate diplomatic fallout
between the Vatican and Ankara, with the Turkish government recalling
its ambassador to the Holy See. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut
Cavusoglu said the Pope was fueling "hatred and animosity" by spreading
"unfounded allegations."

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/04/16/turkish-hackers-knock-out-vatican-website-in-protest-of-popes-genocide-comments/

[Yervant1]

ARMENIA KILLINGS A GENOCIDE: POPE

Illawarra Mercury (Australia)
April 14, 2015 Tuesday

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis has used the word "genocide" to describe
the mass murder of Armenians in a move likely to severely strain
diplomatic ties with Turkey.

"In the past century our human family has lived through three massive
and unprecedented tragedies," he said on Sunday during mass in Saint
Peter's Basilica to mark the centenary of the Ottoman Turk killings
of Armenians.

"The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the
20th century', struck your own Armenian people," he said, citing a
statement signed by John Paul II and the Armenian patriarch in 2001.

Though many historians describe the killings as the 20th century's
first genocide, Turkey hotly denies it.

If the Pope did not use his own words to describe the murders as
genocide, John Paul II's use of the term provoked a sharp reaction
from Turkey at the time, and citing the beloved former pope will do
more than ruffle feathers.

"It is necessary, and indeed a duty, to honour their memory, for
whenever memory fades, it means that evil allows wounds to fester,"
Pope Francis added.

The 78-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church had been under
pressure to use the term publicly to describe the murders, despite
the risk of alienating an important ally in the fight against radical
Islam.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their kin were killed between 1915
and 1917 as the Ottoman Empire was falling apart, and have long sought
to win international recognition of the massacres as genocide.

But Turkey rejects the claims, arguing that 300,000 to 500,000
Armenians and as many Turks died in civil strife when Armenians rose
up against their Ottoman rulers and sided with invading Russian troops.

Pope Francis said the other two genocides of the 20th century were
"perpetrated by Nazism and Stalinism. And more recently there have
been other mass killings, like those in Cambodia, Rwanda, Burundi and
Bosnia. It seems that humanity is incapable of putting a halt to the
shedding of innocent blood." AFP

[Yervant1]

SPEAKING THE TRUTH ON GENOCIDE

Denver Post, Ohio
April 14, 2015 Tuesday

The Ottoman Turks did indeed engage in what amounts to attempted
genocide of its Armenian population between 1915 and 1923, slaughtering
an estimated 1.5 million, and Pope Francis is hardly the first to
say so. But the boldness of his declaration Sunday was refreshing
nonetheless, even if it did anger Turkey.

"Concealing or denying evil is like allowing a wound to keep bleeding
without bandaging it," the pope said.

In recent months, Pope Francis has appeared increasingly animated by
the persecution of Christians and other minorities in the Middle East
and not without reason, given the depredations of the Islamic State.

So it is not surprising that he would be moved by a horrific tragedy
in that region from a century ago.

And if the pope isn't qualified to speak out on behalf of beleaguered
Christians, or in memory of them, then who would be?

[Yervant1]

SECRET ARCHIVES SHOW VATICAN TRIED TO STOP ARMENIAN GENOCIDE

Newsmax
April 15 2015

VATICAN CITY -- Why did Pope Francis' controversial comments on Sunday
about the "Armenian Genocide" cause such a furor in Turkey?

To help understand the true history behind the 1915-16 atrocity,
Aleteia interviewed German historian and author Michael Hesemann, who
was in Rome for Sunday's Mass in St. Peter's Basilica commemorating
the 100th anniversary of the genocide, otherwise known as Metz Yeghern,
or the Great Evil.

The atrocity involved the Ottoman government's systematic extermination
of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland,
which lies within the territory constituting present-day Turkey. The
total number of people killed in what is also known as the Armenian
Holocaust is estimated at between 1 million and 1.5 million.

In a new book entitled, "The Armenian Genocide" [Volkermord an
den Armeniern], Hesemann reveals for the first time the content of
never-before-published documents on "the greatest crime of World
War I," and how Pope Benedict XV and Vatican diplomacy tried to stop
the deportations of the Armenians into the Syrian desert, save the
victims and prevent the massacre of an entire people.

In this interview, Hesemann shares his findings, which include
evidence of Masonic involvement, and expresses both his admiration
for Pope Francis for drawing attention to the genocide of Christians
and ethnic minorities, and his disappointment over the absence of
the German Ambassador to the Holy See at Sunday's commemorative Mass.

Dr. Hesemann, what led you to write a book on what documents contained
in the Vatican Archives reveal about the Armenian Genocide?

Actually it was a kind of coincidence. I work as an historian for the
"Pave the Way Foundation" in an intensive study of all the aspects
of the life of Eugenio Pacelli, the man who eventually became Pope
Pius XII.

>From 1917-1925, Pacelli was Nuncio in Munich, so I went through the
files of the Apostolic Nunciature in Munich, only to discover one
folder with the title "Persecution of the Armenians."

I opened it and found a letter of the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal
von Hartmann, to the Chancellor of the Reich, Graf (Count) Hartling,
in which he calls the persecution of the Armenians "not less brutal
than the persecutions of the Christians in the first centuries of
Christianity." The Archbishop requested an urgent German intervention,
unfortunately in vain.

In the same file I found a copy of a letter written by Pope Benedict
XV to the Sultan, asking for mercy for the innocent Armenians. These
documents both touched me and aroused my curiosity. I felt I had just
touched the tip of an iceberg and was sure I would find more data,
and indeed I did -- some 2,500 pages so far.

I soon realized that no historian had ever worked with most of these
documents, and that all this information was obviously unknown even
to the leading experts on the Armenocide.

Given the importance of their content, I decided to write a book,
putting the documents in the context of what we already know about
the events of 1915-18.

What was the most surprising and unexpected insight you discovered
in the Vatican Archives about the Armenian genocide?

The most surprising insight was that the Armenian genocide was in
fact just part of a bigger plan -- the extermination of all non-Muslim
minorities in the Ottoman Empire.

The ruling "Young Turk" movement came in contact with European ideas
of nationalism and the concept that only a homogenous state can be
a strong state. That is why they believed that the weakness of the
Ottoman Empire was caused by its multi-religious and multi-ethnic
character.

ALERT: Assess Your Heart Attack Risk in Seconds, Take This Test.

They wanted to "heal" this "weakness" by eliminating all foreign
elements, which first meant the Christians who numbered 19 percent
of the population in early 1914. Besides the Armenians, also Aramaic
and Assyrian Christians, Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians were
persecuted and murdered.

The Turkish claim of a conspiracy between Russia and some Armenian
leaders was nothing but a lie to justify those measures. If that were
really the case, why did they kill innocent women and children, too?

And why didn't they spare the other Christian groups, which were
never under suspicion? Indeed, the Turkish secretary of the interior,
Talaat Bey, quite frankly told Johann Mordtmann of the German Embassy,
according to a report to Berlin: "The (Turkish) government uses the war
to get rid of our internal enemies -- the indigenous Christians of all
denominations -- without diplomatic interventions by foreign nations."

This is also what we read in some of the Vatican documents, e.g. a
report written by Fr. Michael Liebl, an Austrian Capuchin missionary,
who learned in Samsun: "Not the Armenians, the Christians were
sentenced (to death) at a secret meeting of the Young Turks 5 or 6
years ago in Thessaloniki."

What measures did Benedict XV take diplomatically to help save the
Armenians from deportation into the Syrian desert?

Already in June 1915, the Vatican had a vague idea of what had
happened in Eastern Anatolia. One month later, there was no doubt
about the horrible massacres carried out against most of the male
Armenian population. For the whole of August 1915, Msgr. Dolci --
the Apostolic Delegate in Constantinople -- did everything humanly
possible to interfere diplomatically -- without any success.

When drastic reports reached the Vatican in September 1915, Pope
Benedict XV wasted no more time and decided to act. He sent an
autograph to Sultan Mehmet V, pleading for mercy for the Armenians.

The Turks refused even to receive it. For two months, Msgr. Dolci
tried everything to present it to its addressee, but it was not
received by the Sultan.

Only when he asked both the German and the Austrian ambassador for
help was he granted an audience. When another four weeks later the
Sultan answered, most of the deportations were already completed. All
promises of the Turks to end the massacres or spare one group or the
other -- or to let them return home -- turned out to be lies.

In December, Pope Benedict referred to the failure of any diplomatic
intervention in his allocution to the Cardinals at the Consistory of
December 6, 1915. In it, he spoke of "those sorrowful people of the
Armenians, almost completely driven into their extermination."

In June 1916, the Armenian Catholic Patriarch had to inform the Holy
See: "The project of the extermination of the Armenians in Turkey
is still going on. (...) The exiled Armenians ... are continuously
driven into the desert and there stripped of all vital resources. They
miserably perish from hunger, disease and extreme climate. (...) It
is certain that the Ottoman government has decided to eliminate
Christianity from Turkey before the World War comes to an end. And
all this happens in the face of the Christian world."

Why is this only coming to light now?

Well, good question. Of course, the files from the pontificate of
Benedict XV have only been open since the 1990s. Besides this, not
too many historians have access to them. And perhaps just nobody had
any idea what he would find there -- it's only a guess.

Among the documents contained in your book, you include a letter
written by the Superior of the Capuchins in Ezrurum, Fr. Norbert Hofer,
to the Vatican in October 1915, which states: "The punishment of the
Armenian nation (for alleged uprisings) is merely a pretext used by
the Masonic Turkish government to exterminate all Christian elements
in this country."

Many readers may be surprised to hear mention of the Masons in relation
to the Armenian Genocide, particularly in light of the desire at the
time to unite Turkey with Sunni Islam as the state religion?

Can you explain how the Masons factor in to the Armenian genocide,
and who are the "Young Turks" which you referred to earlier?

Yes, of course. It would have been easy and rather populist to blame
Islam for the Armenian genocide, especially as we are facing the
horrible events of our own time in the very same region, with Islamic
States' massacre against Christians and Yazidis in the north of Syria
and the Iraq.

But none of the responsible politicians, neither Talaat nor Enver nor
Cemal *****, was a fanatic Muslim. The Young Turks were anything but
fundamentalists. They were a young, revolutionary movement started
by Turkish academics who had studied in most cases in Paris, where
they came in contact with both the ideals of Masonry and European
nationalism. Many of them were accepted by Masonic lodges and indeed
the lodge of Thessaloniki became a kind of national headquarters
for them.

Pope Francis' controversial comments on Sunday about the "Armenian
Genocide" cause such a furor in Turkey?

To help understand the true history behind the 1915-16 atrocity,
Aleteia interviewed the German historian and author, Dr. Michael
Hesemann, who was in Rome for Sunday's Mass in St. Peter's Basilica
commemorating the 100th anniversary of the genocide, otherwise known
as Metz Yeghern [the Great Evil].

The atrocity involved the Ottoman government's systematic extermination
of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland
which lies within the territory constituting present-day Turkey. The
total number of people killed in what is also known as the Armenian
Holocaust is estimated at between 1 and 1.5 million.

In a new book entitled, The Armenian Genocide [Volkermord an den
Armeniern], Hesemann reveals for the first time the content of
never-before-published documents on "the greatest crime of World
War I," and how Pope Benedict XV and Vatican diplomacy tried to stop
the deportations of the Armenians into the Syrian desert, save the
victims and prevent the massacre of an entire people.

In this interview, Hesemann shares his findings, which include
evidence of Masonic involvement, and expresses both his admiration
for Pope Francis for drawing attention to the genocide of Christians
and ethnic minorities, and his disappointment over the absence of
the German Ambassador to the Holy See at Sunday's commemorative Mass.

Dr. Hesemann, what led you to write a book on what documents contained
in the Vatican Archives reveal about the Armenian Genocide?

Actually it was a kind of coincidence. I work as an historian for the
"Pave the Way Foundation" in an intensive study of all the aspects
of the life of Eugenio Pacelli, the man who eventually became Pope
Pius XII.

>From 1917-1925, Pacelli was Nuncio in Munich, so I went through the
files of the Apostolic Nunciature in Munich, only to discover one
folder with the title "Persecution of the Armenians".

I opened it and found a letter of the Archbishop of Cologne, Cardinal
von Hartmann, to the Chancellor of the Reich, Graf (Count) Hartling,
in which he calls the persecution of the Armenians "not less brutal
than the persecutions of the Christians in the first centuries of
Christianity." The Archbishop requested an urgent German intervention,
unfortunately in vain.

In the same file I found a copy of a letter written by Pope Benedict
XV to the sultan, asking for mercy for the innocent Armenians. These
documents both touched me and aroused my curiosity. I felt I had just
touched the tip of an iceberg and was sure I would find more data,
and indeed I did -- some 2500 pages so far.

I soon realized that no historian had ever worked with most of these
documents, and that all this information was obviously unknown even
to the leading experts on the Armenocide.

Given the importance of their content, I decided to write a book,
putting the documents in the context of what we already know about
the events of 1915-18.

What was the most surprising and unexpected insight you discovered
in the Vatican Archives about the Armenian genocide?

The most surprising insight was that the Armenian genocide was in
fact just part of a bigger plan -- the extermination of all non-muslim
minorities in the Ottoman Empire.

The ruling "Young Turk" movement came in contact with European ideas
of nationalism and the concept that only a homogenous state can be
a strong state. That is why they believed that the weakness of the
Ottoman Empire was caused by its multi-religious and multi-ethnic
character.

They wanted to "heal" this "weakness" by eliminating all foreign
elements, which first meant the Christians who numbered 19% of the
population in early 1914. Besides the Armenians, also Aramaic and
Assyrian Christians, Catholic and Greek Orthodox Christians were
persecuted and murdered.

The Turkish claim of a conspiracy between Russia and some Armenian
leaders was nothing but a lie to justify those measures. If that were
really the case, why did they kill innocent women and children, too?

And why didn't they spare the other Christian groups, which were
never under suspicion? Indeed, the Turkish Secretary of the Interior,
Talaat Bey, quite frankly told Johann Mordtmann of the German Embassy,
according to a report to Berlin: "The (Turkish) government uses the war
to get rid of our internal enemies -- the indigenous Christians of all
denominations -- without diplomatic interventions by foreign nations."

This is also what we read in some of the Vatican documents, e.g. a
report written by Fr. Michael Liebl, an Austrian Capuchin missionary,
who learned in Samsun: "Not the Armenians, the Christians were
sentenced (to death) at a secret meeting of the Young Turks 5 or 6
years ago in Thessaloniki."

What measures did Benedict XV take diplomatically to help save the
Armenians from deportation into the Syrian desert?

Already in June 1915, the Vatican had a vague idea of what had
happened in Eastern Anatolia. One month later, there was no doubt
about the horrible massacres carried out against most of the male
Armenian population. For the whole of August 1915, Msgr. Dolci --
the Apostolic Delegate in Constantinople -- did everything humanly
possible to interfere diplomatically -- without any success.

When drastic reports reached the Vatican in September 1915, Pope
Benedict XV wasted no more time and decided to act. He sent an
autograph to Sultan Mehmet V, pleading for mercy for the Armenians.

The Turks refused even to receive it. For two months, Msgr. Dolci
tried everything to present it to its addressee, but it was not
received by the sultan.

Only when he asked both the German and the Austrian ambassador for
help was he granted an audience. When another four weeks later the
sultan answered, most of the deportations were already completed. All
promises of the Turks to end the massacres or spare one group or the
other -- or to let them return home -- turned out to be lies.

In December, Pope Benedict referred to the failure of any diplomatic
intervention in his allocution to the cardinals at the Consistory
of Dec. 6, 1915. In it, he spoke of "those sorrowful people of the
Armenians, almost completely driven into their extermination."

In June 1916, the Armenian Catholic Patriarch had to inform the Holy
See: "The project of the extermination of the Armenians in Turkey
is still going on. (...) The exiled Armenians ... are continuously
driven into the desert and there stripped of all vital resources. They
miserably perish from hunger, disease and extreme climate. (...) It
is certain that the Ottoman government has decided to eliminate
Christianity from Turkey before the World War comes to an end. And
all this happens in the face of the Christian world."

Why is this only coming to light now?

Well, good question. Of course, the files from the pontificate of
Benedict XV have only been open since the 1990s. Besides this, not
too many historians have access to them. And perhaps just nobody had
any idea what he would find there -- it's only a guess.

Among the documents contained in your book, you include a letter
written by the Superior of the Capuchins in Ezrurum, Father Norbert
Hofer, to the Vatican in October 1915, which states: "The punishment
of the Armenian nation (for alleged uprisings) is merely a pretext
used by the Masonic Turkish government to exterminate all Christian
elements in this country."

Many readers may be surprised to hear mention of the Masons in relation
to the Armenian genocide, particularly in light of the desire at the
time to unite Turkey with Sunni Islam as the state religion.

Can you explain how the Masons factor in to the Armenian genocide,
and who are the "Young Turks" which you referred to earlier?

Yes, of course. It would have been easy and rather populist to blame
Islam for the Armenian genocide, especially as we are facing the
horrible events of our own time in the very same region, with the
Islamic States' massacre against Christians and Yazidis in the north
of Syria and the Iraq.

But none of the responsible politicians, neither Talaat nor Enver nor
Cemal *****, was a fanatic Muslim. The Young Turks were anything but
fundamentalists. They were a young, revolutionary movement started
by Turkish academics who had studied in most cases in Paris, where
they came in contact with both the ideals of Masonry and European
nationalism. Many of them were accepted by Masonic lodges and indeed
the lodge of Thessaloniki became a kind of national headquarters
for them.

Talaat Bey -- the man responsible for the Armenocide -- was even
Grandmaster of the Grand Orient of the Turkish Masonry. That's a
historical fact. The ideology of the Young Turks can be described
as "proto-fascism." Only race did not play any role as the unifying
element, since there is nothing like a "racially pure" Turk. Rather,
it was substituted by religion, namely Sunni Islam.

Islam was therefore instrumentalized for political reasons. It gave all
those who were involved in the killings a rationale, a justification
for their deeds. But behind it was the master plan of a political
ideology, which misused religion for its purposes, and so sought the
homogenization of the Turkish nation.

As an historian who has studied in depth the events and circumstances
surrounding the Armenian genocide, particularly those documented in
the Vatican archives, what do you make of Turkey's reaction to Pope
Francis' statements on Sunday in which he called the Armenian massacre
a "genocide"?

I am very grateful to the Holy Father. On Sunday, we not only saw a
beautiful, worthy and solemn commemoration of the Armenian martyrdom,
we also experienced the victory of truth over diplomacy.

If you know how fanatically Turkey tries every means to debunk the
events of 1915-1916, if you follow the chronology of their threats
against nations much bigger and more powerful than the Vatican --
nations such as France, Germany and the U.S. -- you get an idea what
it takes to stand up and call a "genocide" what was indeed the first
genocide of the 20th century. Thank you, Pope Francis! What a great,
wonderful, political Pope, who indeed acted as the moral conscience
of the world and taught us that, as Christians, we should never be
afraid of the truth.

The Turkish reaction to his brave remark could be expected. It is
always the same. They claim that the Pope was misinformed, although
he knows the truth from his own archives. By the way, when will the
Turks open theirs?

The Turks even spoke of racism. Should we now assume that, from the
Turkish point of view, it is not racist at all to kill nearly a whole
nation, a religious and ethnic group, but it is racist to call this
a genocide?

It is so sad that the Turks don't realize how they exclude themselves
from the community of civilized nations by such acts. I mean, I am
German and my nation committed the most horrible crime in history,
the Shoah. But at least we admitted what we did, we deeply regret it
and we tried anything possible for reconciliation and compensation.

As a Catholic, I believe that every sin and every crime can be
forgiven, if you only confess and regret. But what you neither regret
nor confess cannot be forgiven either. Turkey only has one chance to
overcome the trauma and guilt of the darkest chapter of its history,
and that is to confess and regret! And we will all forgive. If not,
these wounds will always be wide open, even after 100 years.

What lessons do the history of the Armenian genocide hold for us today,
particularly in light of present-day persecution of Christians in
Africa and the Middle East?

If there is one lesson we should learn from the Armenian genocide,
it is this: Never turn around, never look away when your brother
suffers persecution.

We all, all nations of the civilized world and first of all Germany --
Turkey's ally -- share the Turkish guilt, because we allowed this to
happen. By opportunism, by giving other topics priority, by what Pope
Francis rightly called "the globalization of indifference," which
is so evil. "Cain, where is your brother Abel?" That's why nobody
can ever say that he has nothing to do with the Armenian genocide,
the holocaust or the fate of our Christian brothers in Syria and Iraq.

For ignoring their fate and their suffering makes us guilty, too. Not
preventing a crime which happens before your very eyes makes you an
accomplice of the perpetrator. We should never be ignorant, we should
never be indifferent, but rather learn to act responsibly.

This is why I was so very ashamed that, of all the diplomats present in
St. Peter's Basilica that morning commemorating the Armenian martyrs,
the one who was missing was Annette Schavan, the German Ambassador
to the Holy See. Especially since, as I explained before, Germany as
Turkey's ally holds a special responsibility for their martyrdom. In
her case, opportunism won over the truth. And that is a shame. We
can only be people of the future if we are not afraid of the past.

http://www.newsmax.com/World/GlobalTalk/turkey-armenian-genocide-aleteia-world-war-I/2015/04/15/id/638611/

[onjig]

Will we ever see Redress of Grievance?

[Yervant1]

16:27 18/04/2015 » SOCIETY

Armenian Genocide: Turkey to convert Hagia Sofia Basilica into mosque to spite Pope Francis

By Johnlee Varghese
IBTimes India
Irked by Pope Francis' statement on the Armenian mass killings, Turkey is planning to convert the historic Hagia Sofia Catheral into a Muslim prayer house, a top Turkish Islamic leader said.
Turkey had reacted with outrage after Pope Francis called the mass deaths of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire in 1915 a genocide. On Wednesday, the European Parliament also voted in favour of using the term to describe the killings.
The Mufti of Ankara has now announced that in response to the Pope's statement, the country will convert Hagia Sofia Catheral into a mosque, Hurriyet Daily News reported.
"Frankly, I believe that the pope's remarks will only accelerate the process for Hagia Sophia to be re-opened for [Muslim] worship," Professor Mefail Hızli, the mufti said in a statement on 15 April.
The historic basilica served as a cathedral for almost a thousand years, till it was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1453. The Greek Patriarchal basilica was then converted into a mosque. However, in 1935 the modern secular Turkish Republic agreed to convert into a museum.
In the past few years, many in Turkey have campaigned for opening the former church for Muslim prayers, despite opposition that it would be disrespectful to Christians.
Recently, on 10 April, hundreds of Muslim worshippers had gathered at the Hagia Sophia, where for the first time in 85 years, a Muslim cleric recited the Quran.
Armenian Genocide
During a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis said the slaughter of up to 1.5 million Armenians in 1915 constituted "the first genocide of the 20th century." The reference angered Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who accused the head of the Catholic church of spouting "nonsense," and warned the pontiff not to make "such a mistake again."
The European Parliament too has now asked Turkey to use the centenary of the massacre – to be commemorated on 24 April – as an opportunity "to recognise the Armenian genocide."
But Erdogan hit out against the EU and accused the bloc of 'religious fanaticism,' Deutsche Welle reported.

Source: Panorama.am

[Yervant1]

TURKEY ACCUSES EU OF 'ENMITY' OVER 1915 ARMENIAN GENOCIDE RECOGNITION

Erdogan says EU vote to recognise 1915 Armenian genocide an "expression
of enmity" as Turkey's genocide denial deepens ahead of April 24
anniversary

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Photo: JURE MAKOVEC/AFP

By Richard Spencer, Sanliurfa

7:43PM BST 17 Apr 2015

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey's president, has accused the EU
of declaring "enmity" on his country as next week's centenary
commemorations of themassacres of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire
descend into bitter rows over what to call them.

Both the European Parliament and Pope Francis this week referred to
the killings as a genocide, a term recognised by much of the rest of
the world but fiercely disputed by Turkey.

The European decision prompted a furious response from Mr Erdogan.

"Such decisions are nothing but expressions of enmity against Turkey
by abusingArmenians," he said while on a visit to Kazakhstan. "Come
on, let's leave history to historians."

Earlier he had made an implicit threat to deport Armenian citizens,
many of whom work in Turkey.

â~@¢ Stories from the Armenian genocide: the survivors, the victims
and the relatives

The Pope's comments on Sunday, in which he also referred to the
events as a genocide, have met an even more extreme response. One
minister claimed the statement stemmed from Pope Francis's Argentinian
nationality and the country's history of giving shelter to Nazis.

The Grand Mufti of Ankara threatened retaliation by saying Turkey
could convert the former Hagia Sophia Basilica - the seat of the
Orthodox church for a thousand years, until Constantinople was seized
and incorporated into the Ottoman Empire in 1453 - into a mosque. It
is currently a museum.

Armenian widows with children in the first year of the Genocide

Widespread massacres of Armenians, accused of plotting against the
declining Ottoman Empire with the Russians and western Christian
powers, began in the 1890s but climaxed with an orgy of violence in
the First World War.

In April 1915, ethnic Armenians, of whom millions lived in what is
now eastern Turkey, were ordered to be deported south. En route,
they were ambushed by soldiers and Kurdish gangs, who separated the
men and killed them by the hundreds of thousands. Many of the women
and children who survived the attacks died of starvation or thirst
in the Syrian deserts.

The anniversary is traditionally commemorated on April 24, including
by the small remaining Armenian community in Istanbul. The day after,
the anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli is traditionally respected
together by both sides of that encounter, the Turks and the western
allies and above all the Australians and New Zealanders who made up
a large part of the latters' fighting forces.

This year the Turkish government has announced that the Gallipoli
commemorations will be held over three days, starting on April 24,
meaning they will most likely overshadow the Armenian commemorations.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly to remember
what it called the "centenary of the Armenian genocide".

The facts remain hotly contested by Turkish and Armenian historians.

Turks say the empire was fighting what proved to be a mortal threat
to its existence, in which hundreds of thousands died on either side.

Ilhan Palalı, a historian of the period at Sanliurfa University said
that Armenians had also exaggerated the number of dead, which he put
at 300,000, rather than the figure of 1.5 million often given.

"This action was not a planned genocide, but merely the defensive
action of a country that was about to be extinct from history,"
he said.

Sanliurfa was the scene of repeated massacres, including one of the
best-remembered of the 1895 killings, when up to 3,000 Armenians
seeking refuge in the town's St John the Baptist Cathedral died when
it was burned to the ground around them.

The town is now entirely muslim, and the church, after falling into
disrepair, was rebuilt in 1993 as a mosque named after the Crusader-era
Sultan, Saladin. There is no memorial to the Armenian Christians who
died there, and the mosque's imam said he had no knowledge of its
earlier history.

There has been more freedom in recent years for the Armenians to
press their case inside Turkey. The Turkish authorities say that the
insistence on calling what happened a genocide by European nations -
excluding Britain, which still does not use the term - is hindering
reconciliation.

One Armenian community leader, Ergun Ayık, said Mr Erdogan's harsh
response to the European vote was to save the "prestige" of the
Turkish government rather than because he feared any real consequences.

A young pupil runs through a corridor at the Karagozyan Armenian
primary school in Istanbul

The European vote certainly united the normally bitterly hostile
main Turkish parties - the main liberal opposition, the CHP, called
for a joint statement of protest, while the right-wing, nationalist
MHP said there was a "campaign of slander" against Turkey from those
looking at history "through a crusader lens".

As for the question of whether what happened was a genocide, Mr Ayık,
whose father was a baby in 1915 and survived with his mother and
grandmother, but lost 97 members of his family, said: "I don't have
uncles, I don't have a grandfather.

"If everything is as the government says, why are there no Armenians
here any more?" ends

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/turkey/11546643/Turkey-accuses-EU-of-enmity-over-1915-Armenian-genocide-recognition.html

[Yervant1]

THOSE WHO SHUN DEBATE WANT TO STIFLE IT: POPE

Big News Network, Australia
April 16 2015

Big News Network (IANS) Thursday 16th April, 2015

Days after his comments terming the World War I mass killings of
Armenians "genocide" incensed Turkey, Pope Francis on Thursday claimed
those who shunned dialogue wanted to stifle debate.

"Fury and the wish to silence people show a closed mind and the
inability to dialogue," Francis said celebrating mass at the Vatican
hotel.

Turkey recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis on Sunday
described the mass killing of Armenians under Ottoman rule in World
War I as "genocide", sparking a diplomatic row.

Ankara described the pontiff's remarks as "slander" and accused him
of spreading hatred. Francis appeared to defend his comments when in
a homily earlier this week he appealed for "frankness" and "freedom
of speech".

"Today, the message of the Church is to take the path of frankness,
path of Christian courage... of freedom of speech," Francis said.

The European parliament on Wednesday commemorated the centennial of
the mass killing of Armenians and overwhelmingly adopted a resolution
urging Turkey to recognise the killings as genocide.

The parliament also commended Francis's comments on Sunday "honouring
the centenary of the Armenian genocide in a spirit of peace and
reconciliation".

The non-binding resolution called for the normalisation of ties
between Armenia and Turkey by formally establishing diplomatic ties
and engaging in cross-border cooperation and economic integration.

Armenia's Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian hailed the resolution
as a move aimed at defending human rights.

But the Turkish foreign ministry accused the European Parliament vote
of attempting to rewrite history.

Armenia says up to 1.5 million people died in 1915-16 as the Ottoman
Empire was disintegrating. Turkey claims the number of deaths was
much smaller, that many were due to famine and unrest and and says
ethnic Turks also suffered in the conflict.

--IANS/AKI

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/index.php/sid/232005105

[Yervant1]

TURKEY: GENOCIDE A LA CARTE

AINA Assyrian International News Agency
April 16 2015

By Burak Bekdil
Gatestone Institute

It seems as if Turkey's ruling politicians are in a race to look less
and less convincing to an already suspicious international audience.

How they defended their ancestors' sins a century ago earned them
new points in the race, and made them look even more odd than before.

The tragic events of 1915-1920 that killed 1.5 million Ottoman
Armenians have been recognized as genocide by a total of 22 countries
in the world, 44 states in the United States, two states in Australia,
three in Brazil, four regions and three cities in Spain, two in Syria,
five provinces in Bulgaria, one in Colombia, one regional parliament
in the Netherlands, one regional parliament in Italy and one in Iran.

The Catholic city-state, the Vatican, is among the countries that
have recognized the genocide. But a papal speech on April 12 at a
commemorative Mass, calling the mass killing of Armenians the "first
genocide of the 20th century," deeply annoyed some very important
men in Ankara. Their defense line was beyond the traditional official
Turkish language based on outright denial: it featured generous doses
of banality and hypocrisy.

Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu accused the Holy See of ignoring
the pain suffered by Muslims and Turks. But Cavusoglu did not say why
Muslims and Turks tend to ignore the pain suffered by other faiths
and nations. In 2009, then Prime Minister (now President) Recep Tayyip
Erdogan accused China of committing genocide against the ethnic Turkic
Uighurs in China, after fewer than 100 of them lost their lives during
clashes with Chinese security forces. The same year, Erdogan said
that he went to Darfur in Sudan and did not see genocide there. Only a
few months earlier, Erdogan's Islamist friend, Sudan's President Omar
al-Bashir, had become the first sitting president to be indicted by the
International Criminal Court for genocide and crimes against humanity
that caused the death of 400,000 people in Darfur in 2005. "A Muslim
would never commit genocide," Erdogan said, explaining why the man
with an arrest warrant for his crimes, al-Bashir, was innocent.

A more creative, jaw-dropping explanation for why Pope Francis may
have uttered the word that deeply irritates many Turks came from
Volkan Bozkir, a former ambassador and Turkish minister for the
European Union. Bozkir said he must remind that the Pope is "in fact
a citizen of Argentina." Most journalists listening to his speech
silently wondered: So what.

Bozkir further explained: "As you know, Argentina is a country that
embraced the Nazi leaders and torturers ... The Pope must have had
a sensitivity for his own Argentinian citizenship."

According to this theory, Pope Francis, like every other citizen of
Argentina, is responsible for the acts of Nazi fugitives who fled
to his country. And the Nazi collaborator in the Pope (like every
other Argentinian!) forced him to label the mass killings of Armenians
"genocide." That is not even meant to be funny. It reveals the mindset
of the people who rule Turkey.

According to Professor Mehmet Gormez, Turkey's top Muslim cleric, Pope
Francis's statement was totally "unfounded." That could be Gormez's
own opinion, and everyone has the liberty to take him seriously or
not. But Professor Gormez also claimed that there have never been
missionary ambitions or colonialism in the history of Turkey [the
successor state to the Ottoman Empire]. That is only laughable to
anyone with an elementary knowledge of history. For one, Gormez should
explain why millions of Turks every day celebrate the "conquest of
[Christian] Istanbul" by Muslim Ottomans.

Such political controversies as the Pope's speech always offer golden
opportunities to Turkish officials who would not miss exploiting
them in order to look pretty to an Islamist government and hope
for a brighter career. They usually would make a weird statement,
make sure it gets published, and lots of public attention, so that
the very important men in Ankara could privately or publicly hail
them. Turkey is never short of (centrally-appointed, not elected)
governors with eccentric opinions. The Pope's speech lavishly enabled
someone serving in one of Turkey's most remote and poorest corners
to prove his loyalty to the Islamists in Ankara.

In a public speech, the governor of Turkey's easternmost province,
Kars, invited Pope Francis to -- convert! The governor kindly invited
the leader of the Catholic world to a Muslim mass in his city and said:
"May God grant him the right path [to Islam]."

This author has no idea if the Pope would take that opportunity and
convert to Islam. But it is certain that Turkey's Islamists have
brought a playful new dimension to their country's culture of denial.

Burak Bekdil, based in Ankara, is a Turkish columnist for the Hurriyet
Daily and a Fellow at the Middle East Forum.

http://www.aina.org/news/20150416163549.htm

[Yervant1]

THE RELIGIOUS MEANING OF THE POPE'S 'GENOCIDE' MASS

Los Angeles Times
April 16 2015

Opinion

By Michael McGough contact the reporter

When Pope Francis described the killing of more than a million
Armenians a century ago as "the first genocide of the 20th century,"
he was widely regarded as making a political statement. Certainly
that was the view of Turkey, which recalled its ambassador to the
Vatican and expressed its "great disappointment and sadness" over
the pope's remarks.

If a religious significance was attached to the pope's comments, it
was that his condemnation of killings of a Christian group resident
in the Muslim Ottoman Empire resonated in the current persecution of
Christians by Islamic State.

But even that analysis misses the theological significance of the
pope's remarks and the ceremony at which he delivered them.

Francis spoke last Sunday at a Mass in the Vatican celebrated for
Catholics of the Armenian Rite. Present were not only the head of
the Armenian Catholic Church, Patriarch Nerses Bedros XIX, but also
the leadership of the Armenian Apostolic Church, including Karekin
II and Aram I, the two Catholicoi (patriarchs) at the top of the
church's hierarchy.

The Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the most ancient Christian
communities, is an "Oriental Orthodox" church, not be confused with
the Eastern Orthodox Church which broke with Rome in the 11th century.

The Armenian Church parted with both Rome and Constantinople much
earlier, over an abstruse theological dispute about the nature
of Christ.

When the pope embraced the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church
he wasn't just making a political statement about events a century ago;
he was doing the Lord's work.-

In recent years, however, the Armenian and other "Miaphysite" churches
- another is the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt - have been engaged
in theological conversations with the Vatican and Eastern Orthodox
churches and the theological differences of Christianity's first
millennium largely have been smoothed over.

As a 1997 joint declaration by Pope John Paul II and Armenian
Catholicos Aram I Keshishian put it, the disagreements "were frequently
based on historical, political, or sociocultural factors."

The Vatican similarly has found common ground with another branch of
Christianity with which it long had doctrinal disputes, the so-called
Nestorian churches, including the Assyrian Church of the East whose
congregants in Iraq and Syria have been targeted by Islamic State.

In 1994 John Paul II and the patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the
East buried the theological hatchet with a "common Christological
declaration" that essentially amounted to a "never mind" about past
disagreements. That agreement later led to a remarkable document in
which the Vatican permitted the sharing of Holy Communion between
Assyrian Christians and Chaldean Catholics, who follow rites similar
to the Assyrians' but recognize the authority of the pope in Rome.

Neither the Oriental Orthodox churches nor the Assyrian Church of the
East have recognized the authority of the pope in the way Roman (and
Eastern) Catholics do. But both the Vatican's outreach to them and
their welcoming response is part of the ecumenical impulse that grew
out of the Second Vatican Council. The council's Decree on Ecumenism
quoted Jesus as praying that all of his followers "may be one."

So when the pope embraced the patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic
Church he wasn't just making a political statement about events a
century ago; he was doing the Lord's work.

http://www.latimes.com/opinion/opinion-la/la-ol-pope-armenia-genocide-20150416-story.html

[Yervant1]

Corriere della Sera, Italy
13 April 2015

A Move To Remind World About Persecution of Christians

by Gian Guido Vecchi


Vatican City - The message to the Armenian people included an
expression that Francis uses in an increasingly recurrent manner:
"Ecumenism of blood." He also mentioned it in very strong terms upon
his return from his journey to Turkey at the end of November: "The
ecumenism of blood is when they kill Christians. We have many martyrs,
starting with the ones in Uganda, who were sanctified 50 years ago:
half of them were Anglican, half Catholic, but those who killed them
did not say: You are Catholic, you are Anglican. No: You are
Christian, they said. And blood becomes mixed. Our martyrs are crying
out to us: We are one!"

The presence at the mass in St Peter's of the [Armenian] Orthodox
Petrarch Karekin II was vey revealing: This commemoration had been
prepared for months, and Francis weighed his words very carefully. In
the Way of the Cross on Good Friday he lamented the "complicit
silence" of the world before the "crucified" Christians, on Easter
Sunday he prayed for "those who sow hatred to convert," and on Easter
Monday he called for the "defence and protection of our brothers and
sisters who are persecuted, exiled, killed, decapitated for the sole
fact of being Christian," making an appeal to the international
community that was repeated yesterday too: "I hope that it does not
look on, dumb and motionless, as this unacceptable crime that
constitutes a worrying fall in the most elementary human rights is
committed, that it does not turn the other way."

So, remembering the "terrible and mad extermination" of the Armenian
people is "necessary" in order to prevent another genocide from taking
place today in the same "general and collective indifference" of the
world: "The warning that comes to us from this tragedy must free us
from falling again in similar horrors, which offend God and human
dignity." Not coincidentally, Francis quoted Benedict XV, who at the
time "wrote to Suntan Mohammed V, begging him to spare so many
innocent people." The Church tried to stop the Armenian genocide just
like now it so trying to stop today's massacres.

Commemorations

A Vatican delegation will attend the genocide commemorations in Erevan
despite Turkish pressure. People say the Pope wanted to attend too,
but this would have caused too many diplomatic complications. But this
matters little, because the Pope has addressed Turkey too, with on the
backdrop the ambiguities in the fight against the ISIL: "Many
commemorations are to take place on the centenary, let us hope that a
path of small gestures, of small steps of rapprochement is
undertaken," he told journalists on the plane that flew him back from
Istanbul to Rome. He was asked about the Armenians, to which he
responded: "The Turkish Government made a gesture last year: then
Prime Minister Erdogan wrote a letter on that anniversary, some have
deemed it too weak, but - whether it was a big or small gesture I do
not know - in my opinion it was an extended hand, and this is always
positive." He added: "Something that is very dear to my heart is the
Turkish-Armenian border: if only it could be reopened! We must pray
for the reconciliation between peoples."


[Groong note: the above was translated from Italian]

[Yervant1]

ANSA English Media Service, Italy
April 15, 2015 Wednesday


Pope's use of 'genocide' part of 'dialogue'-Lombardi-update

Vatican official says Francis hopes for Turkish-Armenian talks

Vatican City

(ANSA) - April 15 - Pope Francis used the term 'genocide' in
describing mass killings in Armenia 100 years ago as part of a
"precise and coherent line of dialogue," Vatican spokesman Father
Federico Lombardi said Wednesday.

The pope's words delivered on Sunday have offended Turkey's officials,
including President Tayyip Erdogan who "condemned" and "warned" the
pope on Wednesday about his comments.

Lombardi said the pope would not respond to those words.

But the comments made on Sunday by Francis were aimed at encouraging
dialogue between Turkey and Armenia, said Lombardi.

"This speech was very clear for those who wanted to grasp (its
meaning), it was very rich", said Lombardi.

"In the end, (it was about) the desire for reconciliation and dialogue
between the Turkish people and the Armenian people".

Turkey has always denied a genocide in the mass killings in 1915.

The controversy was stirred on Sunday when, during a Mass in St.
Peter's Basilica attended by the Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and
top church leaders, the pope referred to "the first (tragedy of the
20th century), which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the
20th century'".

Turkey denounced Francis's comments even though the pope's statement
and the phrase "first genocide of the 20th century" were actually
borrowed from remarks written in 2001 by former Pope John Paul II in a
joint declaration with the Armenian church leader, Karenkin II.

Numerous governments, experts and scholars in the field support
Armenia's position, concluding a genocide occurred.

Armenia and many historians say up to 1.5 million Armenian Christians
were killed by Ottoman forces in 1915.

[Yervant1]

The Armenian friend of Pope Francis: The story behind the recognition
of the Armenian Genocide

Agencia Prensa Armenia
http://www.prensaarmenia.com.ar/2015/04/the-armenian-friend-of-pope-francis.html

Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey's prime minister said that Pope Francis "has
joined this conspiracy" to form an "evil front" against the Turkish
government and has "ignorance or insufficient knowledge of history."
Volkan Bozkir, Turkish Minister for European Affairs, said that the
Pope said what he said because he "was Argentine," a country "that
welcomed the leading executors of the Jewish Holocaust, Nazi
torturers, with open arms." Then he added that "unfortunately, in
Argentina, the Armenian diaspora controls the media and business."
Cemil Ã=87içek, president of the Turkish Parliament, claimed that the
Pope's words were "racist." The President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, was even harder: "Whenever politicians, religious
functionaries assume the duties of historians, then delirium comes
out, not fact."

"Il primo genocidio del XX secolo" says Pope Francis with slow and
measured voice, during the Mass on Sunday April 12, 2015. He is
reading, but he looks at the people before uttering the word
"genocide".

What happened so that Jorge Mario Bergoglio, Pope Francis, pronounced
one of the most important speeches in the history of the fight for
recognition and repair of the genocide against the Armenian people
perpetrated by the Turkish state?

The person who is closer to answering this question, besides Pope
Francis, is Archbishop Kissag Mouradian, Primate of the Armenian
Apostolic Church for Argentina and Chile Republic. Born in Aleppo,
Syria, Mouradian studied and was ordained in Jerusalem. He arrived to
Argentina in 1975.

Behind the accusations of the Turkish government, there is a simple
story. "The only difference I have with him, is that he is fan of San
Lorenzo and I am fan of River Plate," says the archbishop at the
beginning of the interview with Agencia Prensa Armenia. "He usually
calls me Mouradian," recalls.

Asked if the Pope had anticipated that he would call the genocide by
its name, Archbishop Kissag Mouradian said that he had not said
anything before. "I was sure that he was going to say something,
because if he especially celebrated the Mass, he had to say
something."

"The most important thing was to affirm what he always said and
asked. Turkey has to recognize the genocide for the welfare of the two
peoples, both Armenian and Turkish. Truth is always better than trying
to deny or lie," says Mouradian.

( Link ->
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AnbAfYfz3yw/VTUKNNN5QVI/AAAAAAAAAlA/_qTdnugzD-U/s1600/IMG_1908.JPG
)


"Not only my friendship caused all this. The proximity to the Armenian
community in Argentina has influenced so that Bergoglio feel the truth
as it is. Thanks to what we did here for years, through ecumenism, he
managed to understand many things. That work helped so that the future
Pope knew the history of the Armenians. He is someone who has studied
much, and certainly prepares before giving a sermon," he adds.

Before the historical Mass, the Pope received on Friday April 10 a
delegation from Argentina. "We were going to be fifteen or twenty
people and ended up going forty. When we greeted him, Pope Francis
told me: 'If you were twenty I could have invited you to eat. Now it
is impossible'," says the Archbishop, laughing.

The friendship between them "took hold when he called me to accompany
him to the prayer of the tragedy of Cromañon", back in 2005. The
tragedy of Cromañon nightclub was a fire that occurred in Buenos
Aires, on 30 December 2004, an accident that killed 194 people. "That
day, in the morning, my phone rang and Bergoglio said: 'Mouradian
please do not leave me alone, join me to say a prayer at the Cathedral
for the tragedy of Cromañon'. It was very hard, the Cathedral was
crowded with people holding photos of the victims. We were just him
and I, along with other priests. At the door, people asked to pray for
them and one was aware of the impotence they had. It seems that people
expected a miracle from us, to return them the lives of the children
who were lost. You feel you want to help, but you also need help,"
recounts Mouradian.

- Did you met more often after that sad event?

On April 24 we officiated ceremonies of dirge in the Cathedral of
Buenos Aires, where he always addressed his words to the Armenian
people. On one of these occasions he called on Turkey to recognize his
crime to enhance the relationship and doing good to the Armenian
people and the Turkish people. At that time he was a bishop and was
not recognized worldwide. Today is different, he is the Pope and head
of the Vatican.

We also shared several ecumenical prayers, especially those organized
by the St. Egidio group, created by John Paul II, which helps
homeless.

When the Armenians opened an altar of Jude Thaddaeus in the Basilica
of La Merced, he asked to do another one of Saint Bartholomew. They
are the two apostles who went to Armenia to Christianize the Armenian
people.

In the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires there is a Khachkar to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, and it was
also placed at the express request of Bergoglio. He asked, as a wish,
that someday he wanted to be buried under the Armenian Khachkar at the
Metropolitan Cathedral.

- How do you think he received the reply of Turkish officials that
even call him a discriminator?

If he caused all this, it is because he was ready to face Turkey. He
always told the truth and was in favor of justice. He is very brave
and very convinced of his convictions, they will not change for
anything. He is firm with justice and truth.


Agencia de Noticias Prensa Armenia
Armenia 1366, Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tel. (5411) 4775-7595
prensa@diarioarmenia.org.ar
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www.prensaarmenia.com.ar