by Tatevik Shahunyan
During a Sunday service in Turin on June 21, Pope Francis cited what he called the “great tragedy of Armenia” in the last century. “So many died. I don’t know the figure, more than a million, certainly. But where were the great powers then? They were looking the other way,” Associated Press quotes the Pope as saying.
The source says that Pope Francis denounced what he calls the “great powers” of the world for failing to act when there was intelligence indicating Jews, Christians, homosexuals and others were being transported to death camps in Europe during World War II. He also decried the deaths of Christians in concentration camps in Russia under the Stalin dictatorship, which followed the war.
To recall, in April, the Pope angered Turkey when he referred to the slaughter of Armenians by Turkish Ottomans as “genocide.” Turkey condemned the Pope’s remarks and recalled its ambassador from Vatican. Following the Pope’s remarks, a number of foreign countries’ parliaments recognized the Armenian Genocide.