ANKARA—Turkey on Monday called the Pope’s declaration Sunday that the massacre of more than 1.5 million Armenians during the Ottoman Empire was “the first Genocide of the 20th century” null and void and “nothing but slanderous.”
Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican, Mehmet Paçacı returned to Ankara late Sunday, as Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu vowed more consequences toward the Vatican.
“The steps that will be taken [against the Vatican] will be made public following our consultations,” Çavuşoğlu told reporters on Monday at a press conference in Mongolia, where he is on an official visit, reported Hurriyet Daily News.
Çavuşoğlu criticized Pope Francis for “ignoring the sufferings of Muslims and Turks in Anatolia.”
“Unfortunately, history was made an instrument of politics. Before anything else, a religious man should have given a message of brotherhood, peace and tolerance in the face of recently growing racism, discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance,” he said.
“These remarks are null and void for the Turkish people and Turkey,” Çavuşoğlu added, underlining that genocide is a “legal concept” and therefore the use of this word by the pope is “nothing but slander.”
The withdrawal of Paçacı was announced by the Turkish Foreign Ministry’s strong-worded statement late Sunday afternoon of that accused Pope Francis of being “one-sided” and “distorting historical facts.”
Turkey’s reaction was delivered to Vatican Ambassador Antonio Lucibello who was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Ankara on April 12.
At the meeting, Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Levent Murat Burhan told Lucibello that the Pope’s remarks caused “deep sorrow and disappointment” in Ankara.
Criticizing the Pope’s remarks as “one-sided” and “far from accurate,” Turkey said it could not understand why the pope made a “hierarchy” between the pains suffered by Muslims and Christians at the time.
Ambassador Lucibello was told that the Pope’s statement “created a loss of trust in bilateral ties” and that “Turkey will surely respond.”
why doesn’t he stay forever in Mongolia where he belongs?
Turkey can and should recall all of her ambassadors from every place on this earth. They all can go to Mongolia for good. The hell with them. Who needs these barbarian and Genocidal Turkey in the first place.
The Genocidal Turkey is talking of brotherhood, peace and tolerance! Wow… What a change of hearth in the barbarian and blood thirsty Turkey?
It takes great audacity, moral turpitude, shameless lack of ethics, and a vacuum of any trait of humanity to bear the ethical burden of Genocide; yet profess how the pontiff should have “given a message of brotherhood, peace and tolerance.” The fundamental principles of that government and its lineage have acted against what it has recommended for the last 700 years. They have interpreted their Koran in such a way to raze such traits from its people. The limitation of democracy is that such voices are given a forum to be heard instead of the orator being punished for blatant misrepresentation of the truth. I would recommend that Turkey sends its ambassador to ISIS, which it unofficially recognizes, abets, and supports and keeps them out of the Holy Vatican.
These people don’t represent the majority Turkish people, these are the decedents of those ungodly people that slaughtered %80 us Armenians. These people should give us Armenians the courage to respect one another more and progress everywhere in the world. Remember! We need to vote!
My father was four years old when the Turks began to kill Armenians. What Mr. Erdogan tries, is to minimize the disaster instead of accepting the evidence once for all. You can’t change the facts, that hundreds of documents are there internationally, in Europe, in the United States, even though the documents may be destroyed in Turkey. As my father’r memories, the Turkish soldiers gathered a few hundred people, men, women, kids and pushed them in the church. They closed the doors and poured the fuel all around the church.
Then they put the fire. My Grand mother and my father remained outside, crying. Then one of the soldiers came to them, he pulled his dagger and opened by cutting my (pregnant) grand mother’s belly, pulled out the unborn baby, killed the mother and the baby. Then coming to my father, he hit him on his back (waist)
with his dagger and threw him to the ground. The mother began agonizing and my father painful and terrified was crying. The soldier came back and hit my father a second time in the same area and sent him to the ground. My father was still crying. The Turk came and hit him the third time the same area and threw him to the ground. My father did not die and was still crying. As the soldier came back to finish my father, there was an old man there who sent the soldier away saying that the kid is already dying, go away. Then he took the kid in his arms and run to the American Hospital which was a few hundred feet away. The doctors took care of my father and he lived. Then was the Deportation to the Syrian desert. Thank GOD my father’s uncles found my father in the Hospital and took him with them. My father doesn’t remember exactly how long lasted the Deportation that took them through the Syrian Desert to Lebanon. There, they found the Lebanese hospitality and began to work and survive.
The only ones denying are the JERKY turks,PAID STOOGES,other COWARDS….
Glad to hear the NEW POPE, has stood up to the Turkish government, for a genocide that killed friends
and family members. Attaturk thought we would have forgotten the genocide, 100 years later. Sorry, the
World and the Vatican has not forgotton 1.5 million, Armenian Christians.
Will Obama have any guts to say the G word? It is baffling that thr so called mist “powerful”country in the world is scared of Turkey. Everyone knoes Turkey is best pals with ISIS but they close their eyes and shut tbeir mouths….shame on you! Shame on you , you cowards, you, the enemy of truth and justice!
He is too busy filling his back pockets with jerky turkey bribes….
PROOF POSITIVE…THE jerky turks,have to be the the dumbest(70% illitertcy rate) They cant tell the difference between a HOLY MAN,and a errodoggie.. woof,woof.