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Turkey Condemns Pope Over Armenian Genocide Remarks


Turkey -- Pope Francis reviews a honor guard during an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, 28 November 2014.
Turkey -- Pope Francis reviews a honor guard during an official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, 28 November 2014.

Turkey accused Pope Francis of distorting history and fuelling “growing racism” in Europe late on Sunday after recalling its ambassador to the Vatican in protest against his latest recognition of the 1915 Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire.

Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu condemned as “inappropriate” Francis’s remarks made during a Vatican mass dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the World War One-era slaughter of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians.

"To read these sorrows in a one-sided way is inappropriate for the pope and the authority that he holds," Davutoglu said in televised comments cited by the AFP news agency.

According to the Anatolia news agency, Davutoglu charged that the pontiff contributed to “the growing racism in Europe” by ignoring the suffering Turks and other Muslims during the First World War.

The Turkish premier spoke shortly after his country’s ambassador to the Holy See, Mehmet Pacaci, was recalled to Ankara for consultations. “During this Holy Mass, history was instrumentalized for political aims,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that announced the envoy’s recall.

Turkey -- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses members during the parliamentary group meeting of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara, on March 17, 2015
Turkey -- Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu addresses members during the parliamentary group meeting of Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara, on March 17, 2015

“We understand that Pope Francis is under the influence of the Armenian narrative which persists to derive enmity from history instead of leaving a legacy of friendship and peace to the future generations. We reject this approach,” added the statement.

Successive Turkish governments have denied a systematic state effort to exterminate the Ottoman Armenians, saying that they died in much smaller numbers and as a result of civil strife. This stance is rejected not only by the Armenians but also many Western scholars researching crimes against humanity.

“The historical record on the Armenian Genocide is unambiguous and documented by overwhelming evidence,” the U.S.-based International Association of Genocide Scholars (IAGS) said in a 2007 letter to members of the U.S. Congress.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan softened Ankara’s traditional policy of aggressive genocide denial last year when he offered first-ever official condolences to descendants of the Armenian genocide victims. The move, emphasized by both Davutoglu and the Turkish Foreign Ministry on Sunday, was hailed by Western powers. Armenia dismissed it, however, saying that the Turkish state continues to deny that the mass killings constituted genocide.

Yerevan accused Erdogan of dishonesty in January when his government scheduled this year’s commemoration of the 1915 Battle of Gallipoli for April 24, the day when Armenians around the world will mark the 100th anniversary of the genocide. It said that Ankara is cynically trying to deflect international attention from the genocide centenary.

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