Vatican City, June 22, 2016 (AFP) – Pope Francis went from Friday to Sunday in Armenia, a Christian nation among the oldest and most tormented, on the outskirts of a Middle East war.

For the Argentine pontiff, this 14th foreign trip in just over three years will first and foremost a religious dimension, with an encouraging revival of Christianity in a country that has suffered under the yoke of the atheistic Soviet communism.

The Christian tradition is ancient and yet well established: Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 and over 90% of the 3.3 million Armenians belong to the Apostolic Church, separated from Rome since.

Always ready for strong gestures towards a rapprochement with the Eastern Churches, Jorge Bergoglio attend the “Divine Liturgy” of Catholikos Karekin II in the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral.

It must also meet Saturday small Armenian Catholic community in Gyumri city hit by the earthquake of 1988. The political dimension of the trip will be trickier: François is awaited with fervor by a population that was very touched that he spoke publicly it a year ago the Armenian “genocide”, which made up 1.5 million deaths under the Ottoman Empire in 1915-1916.

But Turkey strongly contests this term, ensuring that it was a civil war, coupled with famine, in which hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Turks were killed.

Accompanied by Karekin II, Jorge Bergoglio will visit the memorial of Armenian Tzitzernakaberd, but some observers expect it to avoid pronouncing the word again “genocide” not to throw oil on the fire and create difficulties for Christians in Turkey.

In 2001, John Paul II had visited Armenia for the 1,700th anniversary of the “Baptism of the Armenian people.” In a written statement with Karekin, he denounced “the first genocide of the twentieth century”, is already attracting the wrath of Ankara.

– Colombes to Turkey –

For Armenia, the Polish pope had also appealed for peace in the region, and Francois understood to multiply his gestures in this direction. Thus, a prayer for peace is planned in Yerevan in the presence of tens of thousands of faithful.

At the end of the trip, the Pope will visit the sanctuary of Khor Virap, near Turkey, to release two doves towards Mount Ararat, the highest peak at 5,160 meters was Armenian until 1915 and is now in Turkey.

The Argentine pontiff had the idea to go to the wake in Georgia, another country with ancient Christian roots, and Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim republic in conflict with Yerevan on the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh.

But he had to push both visits and will end in September in Georgia and Azerbaijan, although both trips are “part of the same whole,” insisted Tuesday the spokesman of the Pope, Federico Lombardi.

According to Father Lombardi, the trip was split into two because the Patriarch of Georgia is currently detained at large Orthodox council, which opened Sunday in Crete. According to a good source Armenian however, local churches have blocked a visit after another because of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

In Armenia, the theme of martyrdom, persecution of Christian minorities fleeing their homeland in the Middle East, will be a son of drivers. Some of the inhabitants are in fact descendants of Armenians who have suffered massacres and forced deportations, particularly in Russia and Turkey.

And the movement continues today: Yerevan hosted the last months of Syrian Armenian families fleeing Aleppo and other cities affected by the fighting.

The martyrdom as a testimony that strengthens the faith of believers, is a theme loves to evoke Francis. While Karekin II proceeded in 2015 to the massive canonization of martyrs who died during the genocide.

Armenia, the first state in the world to adopt Christianity (BOX)

Yerevan, June 22, 2016 (AFP) – Pope Francis makes starting Friday a visit to Armenia considered the first state to adopt Christianity in the early fourth century. The main points on the deep Christian roots of this small country in the Caucasus.

– First Christian kingdom –

The area comprising the present Armenia is a biblical land where Noah’s ark came as Genesis aground on Mount Ararat in Turkey today. Armenia is considered the first nation in the world to adopt Christianity as state religion in the early fourth century. The Armenian Christian tradition is also known under the name “grégorianisme” according to Gregory the Illuminator, patron saint and CEO of the Armenian Church. It was he who had converted the pagan country in 301, during the reign of King Tiridates IV.

The Church affirms that the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus were the first to preach in Armenia in the first century, hence the title of Armenian Apostolic Church.

The Bible was translated into Armenian in the fifth century by Saint Mesrop, also creator of the Armenian alphabet.

– The Armenian Church –

According to the 2011 census, nearly 96% of the population claims to the Armenian Apostolic Church. Often defined as Orthodox, the Armenian Church insists that it is not part of the current East which includes the Russian Orthodox Church and the Greek Churches.

It belongs to a group of six Christian Eastern churches who reject the doctrine of the dual nature of Christ and who professes that he has only one: divine and human at the same time. The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, near Yerevan, is the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church and the residence of the 132nd Patriarch Garegin II, current head of it.

Garegin II, 64, was elected in October 1999 by the Supreme Council of the Church, composed of both clergy and laity. Nearly seven million Armenians around the world belong to many Armenian churches in the diaspora who recognize the hierarchical supremacy of Etchmiadzin. The main branches are located in Lebanon, Jerusalem and Istanbul.

– Genocide –

April 23, 2015, the Armenian Church canonized 1.5 million Armenians massacred by the Ottoman Turks during the First World War. The ceremony is considered the largest canonization of history.

Armenians seeking for decades to internationally recognize the 1915-1917 massacres as genocide, but Turkey rejects this term, ensuring that it was a collective tragedy in which many Turks of Armenians perished.

Pope Francis was the first pontiff to publicly use the word genocide in April 2015, provoking the ire of Ankara. The official program of the papal visit includes a visit to Tsitsernakaberd memorial dedicated to the victims of genocide.

– Religious minorities –

More than 35,000 Yazidi live in Armenia, being the largest religious minority in the country. Other minorities are some 14,000 Roman Catholics and Orthodox 8000, mainly Russians, Greeks, Georgians and Ukrainians.

The Catholic Armenian Church was founded in 1740 with the support of Pope Benedict XIV. Its spiritual center is located in the second largest city, Gyumri.

During his trip to Armenia, Pope Francis will hold an outdoor mass in the main square of Gyumri and will visit two Catholic cathedrals.