On April 24, 1915, in the midst of World War I, the Ottoman Empire began systematically massacring its Christian Armenian subjects. At Sunday’s Mass in Rome, Pope Francis described the massacres as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” Turkey, which emerged from the rubble of the defeated Ottoman Empire and has long fiercely denied that a genocide took place, angrily recalled its ambassador to the Vatican. “The pope’s statement, which is out of touch with both historical facts and legal truths, is simply unacceptable,” tweeted Turkey’s foreign minister, Mevlut Cavusoglu.
Will President Obama follow Pope Francis’ lead?
Contrary to the foreign minister’s tweet, there is a solid factual and legal foundation for calling the massacres a genocide, defined as killing or other acts intended to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group.
Yeah, I think Obama sees Erdogan as more of a peer than he does Pope Francis.