Pope Francis uses term genocide to describe massacre of Armenians during WWI
During his visit to Yerevan, Pope Francis used the term genocide to describe the massacre of Armenians in 1915 in the Ottoman Empire, Radio Svoboda reported.
Addressing the President of Armenia and the diplomatic corps on June 24th, Pope Francis used the Armenian term "Mets Exern" (the evil), but then added the words "this genocide" to the prepared text in order to describe what he had called "the first among a series of disasters of the last century."
In April of 2015, Francis held a mass in the Vatican dedicated to the 100th anniversary of the massacre, where he used the word genocide, prompting Turkey to recall its Ambassador from the Vatican.
The murder of approximately 1.5 million Armenians by the Ottoman Turks between 1915 and 1917 is considered by many historians to be the first genocide of the twentieth century. Despite overwhelming evidence, Turkey vehemently denies that it was genocide, claiming that the number of victims was smaller, and that they were killed due to civil strife.