ROME, Italy (News.am)—The book The Holy See and the extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire by Valentina Varduhi Karakhanian and Omar Viganò has been released in Italy, daily Italian newspaper La Stampa reported. The text focuses on the diplomatic mission of Vatican to the Ottoman Empire during the WWI and the activity of Cardinal Angelo Maria Dolci, a papal nuncio in Constantinople.
Karakhanian and Viganò are researchers of the Vatican Secret Archives who have gathered every document the Holy See possesses on the Armenian Genocide.
Within the plot of the book, the reader can see the difficulty of Dolci’s position during the exterminations of Armenians in the western regions of Turkey, hundreds of kilometers away from the capital. When Dolci began to realize what was happening, he exerted every effort for holding talks not only with the Ottoman authorities but also with their Austrian and German allies.
His letters and documents show the efforts exerted by him towards saving both Armenians and other Christians despite his limited powers and financial means.
To the dissatisfaction of the Ottoman officials, Dolci also addressed his letters directly to the sultan in order to avoid possible censorship.
The efforts of the Vatican can be seen more apparently in the context of its solitude, since the western superpowers then cared more for their strategic interests than the fate of their brothers in faith, the book review reads.
The book has come out “in loving memory of blessed Nerses Bedros XIX, patriarch of Catholic Armenians, who passed away in 2015.”
