The events of 1915 cannot help being called genocide, says Etienne Mahcupyan, Advisor to Turkey's President Recep Erdogan.
Haberler reports that the given statement of the Turkish official of Armenian descent has caused a wide public response in Turkey. Mahcupyan says that if the events in Rwanda, Sudan, Cambodia and Bosnia are qualified as genocide, the annihilation of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire should also be qualified as genocide.
"One should not look for any political background in Vatican's steps, because what Pope Francis did on April 12 was a tribute to conscience," he says.
To recall, on April 12 during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Pope Francis said that the annihilation of 1.5 mln Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was "the first Genocide of XX century". He called the Genocide one of the three massive and unprecedented tragedies of XX century along with Nazism and Stalinism. Vatican's ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for explanations and the Turkish ambassador to Vatican was recalled "for consultations". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan strong criticized the Pope's comments and called them "delirium".