The Vatican announced on Friday that Pope Francis will visit Armenia this June, a decision that has left Turkish officials steaming. Last year, the Erdogan government condemned Pope Francis for describing the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in World War I as, “the first genocide of the 20th century.” The Pope’s comments came days prior to commemorations marking the centennial of the atrocity.
While the Turkish government accepts that many Christian Armenians were killed in ‘clashes’ with Ottoman soldiers when Armenians lived in Constantinople’s empire, it nonetheless denies that 1.5 million were killed or that it can be appropriately described as a genocide.
In response to the Pope’s comments last year, the Turkish government went so far as to recall its ambassador to the Vatican in protest. A majority of Turkish civilians polled by international researchers also reject the accusation of genocide.
International historians, however, adamantly disagree with Ankara’s accounting of the facts. Historical surveys suggest that, out of a total population of 1.8 million Armenians within the Ottoman Empire, an astonishing 1.5 million, or 83% of the entire population, were slaughtered in a massive wave of killing. By comparison, during the most notable genocide in the modern era, the Holocaust, the Nazi army killed just over 60% of the German Jewish population, per historical record.
Turkey’s continued denial of the genocide has at times complicated relations between the Middle East power and Washington. US President Barack Obama, as a candidate, said that he would describe the killings as a genocide once elected. However, through his first seven years in office, President Obama has refused to utter the words.
The tragic history, and Turkey’s reticence to take responsibility for the genocide, continue to thwart efforts to re-open diplomatic ties with neighboring Armenia. The 190 mile (300 km) border between the two countries has been closed for two decades.
