NEVERTHELESS POPE MENTIONED THE ARMENIAN GENOCIDE
By Hakob Chakrian
AZG Armenian Daily
07/12/2006
The Pope is not the Person to be Blamed
The visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey ended on December 1, but
its consequences and rumors are still insinuated both in Vatican and
Turkey, as well as in the whole West. One of the hottest points of
the High Pontiff’s visit was his meeting with Patriarch Mesrop II
Mutafian. Before the meeting NTVNSNBC announced that the Pope was to
mention the past tragedies of the Armenian people, but not mention
the word "genocide".
When the meeting began CNN-Turk reported that the Armenian Patriarch
of Constantinople welcomed the Pope with the following words: "The
peace dialogue of the Armenian and Turkish peoples is a virtue and
our expectation". An article by CNN, published on the "Haytert" (The
Armenian Newspaper) website, corrected the information previously
published by "Anadolu" agency: the Patriarch marked the peace
dialogue between the Armenians and the Turks not a "virtue" but
"vital necessity".
As CNN-Turk and Anadolu did not report anything of the Pope’s reply
to the Armenian Patriarch Of Constantinople, "Azg" daily came to
conclusion that the meeting was arranged to fail and published a
corresponding article on December 2.
The speech of the Pope was also neglected by the Turkish press and the
central television. Such attitude of the press seems quite natural,
and of the public television – amusing, as only the Turkish National
TV Channel and the "Anadolu" agency were authorized to illustrate
the Pope’s visit to the Armenian Patriarchy of Constantinople.
Official messenger of the patriarchy "Lraber" published the November
30 speech of the pope with considerable delay. Lraber’s publication
was copied by Haytert, aslo controlled by the Patriarchy. Indeed,
the statement by NTVNSNBC proved true – Benedict XVI mentioned the
events of 1914-1916, but did not mark them as genocide. That is why
the Patriarchy failed to respond to the Pope’s speech.
According to "Lraber", at the Constantinople Patriarchy Pope Benedict
XVI welcomed the Armenian Apostolic community and aslo sent his
"brotherly welcome" to Catholicos Karekin II and whole the Armenian
Apostolic Church. He expressed his gratefulness to God that the
Armenian have passed their Christian heritage throughout numerous
generations in spite of harsh testimonies, of which an example are
the tragic events of the past century.
Protractions with the publication of the Pope’s response also confused
famous lawyer Mark Kirakosian, who published an article in ABC-News,
blaming the Pope of missing the opportunity to express his position
about the Genocide.
"Die Welt" says that Benedict XVI was warned not to mentioned the
Genocide by the "Armenian Bishop of Istanbul", taking into account the
scandals in the Turkish society about the visit. It is also notable
that Catholic believers, who are over 1 billion in the world consider
the Pope unmistakable. Probably, that is why the Pope did not ask
excuse of the Muslims in connection with the Prophet Mohammad cartoons.
Therefore it seems obvious that blaming the "Unmistakable" Pope
would only harm the process of worldwide recognition of the Armenian
Genocide, provoking enmity of the Roman Catholic Church.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
