Disir
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In two years as pope, he had never been attacked so harshly as he is now by Turkey, for his denunciation of the Armenian genocide. A turning point in the pontificate
ROME, April 17, 2015 - The first true “causus belli” that has broken the spell of a universally revered and praised pontificate has erupted on account of a century-old massacre, which Pope Francis has had the boldness to call by name, the taboo name of “genocide,” and to equate with all the other systematic, planned annihilations of peoples and religions that have marked the twentieth century and now also the present century.
It is difficult to deny that this marks a turning point in the pontificate. Because only a few months ago, at the end of November, Francis was in Turkey and didn't say a word about the Armenians.
To those who asked him why, he had replied that he was more interested in small steps, like those taken a year before by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a letter of condolence. In reality that letter, pure denial behind a bit of smoke, did nothing to console the Armenians, but embittered them all the more.
But Erdogan had asked the pope not to talk about the genocide, and Francis respected the request.
A First for Francis. With the Ottoman Enemy
Good time gone.
ROME, April 17, 2015 - The first true “causus belli” that has broken the spell of a universally revered and praised pontificate has erupted on account of a century-old massacre, which Pope Francis has had the boldness to call by name, the taboo name of “genocide,” and to equate with all the other systematic, planned annihilations of peoples and religions that have marked the twentieth century and now also the present century.
It is difficult to deny that this marks a turning point in the pontificate. Because only a few months ago, at the end of November, Francis was in Turkey and didn't say a word about the Armenians.
To those who asked him why, he had replied that he was more interested in small steps, like those taken a year before by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a letter of condolence. In reality that letter, pure denial behind a bit of smoke, did nothing to console the Armenians, but embittered them all the more.
But Erdogan had asked the pope not to talk about the genocide, and Francis respected the request.
A First for Francis. With the Ottoman Enemy
Good time gone.