New Pope Urged Turkey to Recognize Genocide in 2006

The newly elected Pope Francis urged Turkey to unconditionally recognize the Armenian Genocide seven years ago, when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

Pope Francis (AP photo)
Pope Francis (AP photo)

During events marking the 91st anniversary of the Armenian Genocide in Buenos Aires, then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires Jorge Mario Bergoglio (his birth name) urged Turkey to recognize the genocide as the “gravest crime of Ottoman Turkey against the Armenian people and the entire humanity.”

On March 14, 2013, after what was viewed as a short conclave, white smoke from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel heralded that a gathering of Catholic cardinals picked a new pope, choosing the first pontiff from the Americas to lead the Roman Catholic Church.

The 76-year-old pope will be called Francis, the 226th pontiff of the Roman Catholic Church, the first member of the Jesuit order to lead the church, and the first non-European pope in more than 1,200 years.

“I would like to thank you for your embrace,” the new pope, dressed in white, said from the white balcony on St. Peter’s Basilica. “My brother cardinals have chosen one who is from far away, but here I am,” reported the New York Times.

“Pray for me, and we’ll see each other soon,” the pope told the crowd of the more than 100,000 gathered at St. Peter’s Square.

11 Comments

  1. Who cares… Obama said the same before becoming president. We’re on our own, forget it. Stop latching onto everyone’s empty words.
    Reply

  2. Aram; I sympathize with your point of view, but let’s give him credit for saying it without asking us to vote for him, or to hold shish kebab and baklava picnics to raise money for a campaign to become Pope. This gives him far more credibility throughout the world than Obama has ever had. He comes from a truth to power position, so, when he speaks, hundreds of millions of people, who never heard of Armenia or the Genocide, bend their knee. His words raise awareness of Turk evil in a way that Obama never could. This is good for our Cause. Let’s remind him in time for April commemoration, particularly 2015. Somehow, I doubt Turkey will be able to buy him off.

  3. “gravest crime of Ottoman Turkey against the Armenian people
    and the entire humanity.”
    Pope Francis of 2013 said 7 years ago…

    I hope he will not become like P. Obama and change his style…No one knows…Every human can change with his position…even he is a Pope…let us see…

    Also “godless crime on innocent people they committed in Arabia…They raped and married Arab girls to revenge from their tribes”…(I heard recently) …
    Even the Muslim world could not accept what ottomans did to them…
    Ottomans killed 30,000 Yemenis in 19th century and Yemenis killed 10 times more (300,000) of Ottoman soldiers…Turks have memorial grave in Yemen…
    President Gul of Turkey went and prayed there and cried on their lost lives you can see in You-tube
    Arab calls Yemen land “the grave of the invaders” (Maqbarat el ghizat)

  4. I urge people not to draw conclusions about the Pope and compare him to the disgusting, putrid and lying sleazeball politicians of the west. He is a good man, and I believe a perfect choice for a Pope. The Vatican has always known what truly happened in history and that is why they know very well and accept the reality of the Armenian Genocide. Even though our churches have differences, I fully support the Vatican and Catholicism. God bless the new Pope.

  5. I think it would be proper and prudent to give the new Pontiff a chance.

    He might be a man of his word,unlike the lying Obama, Clinton’s, Biden, and the rest of the lying bunch of politicians which seems to be the hallmark of the West.

  6. The Armenian Genocide is not merely “our” issue. It was a crime against humanity, and acutely, a crime against Christians. Armenian Catholics and Catholic Priests were killed by Ottomans as well.

    We expect the Vatican to release its diplomatic cables and letters before the 100th Anniversary.

    • It is so important that we not forget this—the genocide was a crime against all humanity. Justice should be pursued with that in mind.

  7. Will Maxime and Ragnar make a few calls to the Pope claiming to hold all the “truth” about those pesky arméniens?

  8. My dear Armenians, trust and rely upon no one. Only ourselves. That was the lesson of the entire Armenian Genocide wasn’t it?

  9. It is essential to keep talking about Genocide in all possible international arenas, mainly to make Turkish ear used to it and pin the word in the consciousness of far larger public.
    More importantly , I believe the struggle for the recognition should be transferee to the legal sphere from the political one. Legally we are in a much stronger position than politically.

    Also, its important to reach some consensus within Armenia and its diaspora concerning WHAT DO WE CLAIM? Is it just recognition? Lands? Financial reparation? For turkey to recognize genocide is the issue of loosing territories. This is how it represents in international and domestic arenas, saying thy recognition is only the first step which will be followed by annexation of “Turkish land” and “elimination” of Turks living in the territory(though those areas are predominantly Kurdish).

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