Pope avoids mentioning ‘Armenian genocide’

March 22, 2006
Turkish Daily News
ANKARA – TDN with AP

Pope Benedict XVI has paid tribute to the sufferings of Armenians because of their Christian faith and recalled their “terrible persecution,” a reference to what Armenians claim was genocide at the hands of the late Ottoman Empire during the years of World War I.

Benedict recalled the Armenians' history as he welcomed an Armenian Catholic patriarch, Nerses Bedros XIX Tarmouni, and Armenian pilgrims to a Vatican audience on Monday.

Speaking about the Armenian people through the centuries, the pope singled out the “sufferings that they underwent in the name of the Christian faith in the years of the terrible persecution that went down in history with the sadly meaningful name ‘metz yeghern,' the great evil.”

For the editors of the Turkish Daily News‘metz yeghern,' is not the great evil, it means the great crime.

Benedict was citing the term used by Armenians to refer to what they say was genocide perpetrated by Turkey. Turkey vehemently denies genocide charges and has harshly criticized countries that characterize it as such.

Benedict did not use the term “genocide” in his official remarks. His predecessor, Pope John Paul II, called the deaths genocide but did not declare any party responsible.

Is the Turkish Daily News so desparate to hang on this word which means, great crime, in Armenian? Is the Jewish Holocaust not a genocide because they call it Holocaust and not genocide? I do not think Vatican plays the politics. Vatican has recognized the Armenian Genocide on November 2000 HERE.

In 301, Armenia became the world's first country to declare itself Christian.
Pope John Paul II, Benedict XVI's predecessor, visited Armenia's capital of Yerevan in 2001 to celebrate the 1,700th anniversary of Christianity in the country.

Note: Above are excerpts from the article. The full article appears here. Clarifications and comments by me are contained in {}. Deletions are marked by [...]. The bold emphasis is mine.