Italian Book on Vatican Efforts to Stop Armenian Genocide Released

The editorial Guerini e Associati of Milan has recently published the book La Santa Sede e lo sterminio degli Armeni nell' Impero Ottomano (The Holy See and the extermination of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire), by Valentina Vartui Karakhanian and Omar Viganò. The text focuses on the diplomatic mission of the Vatican to the Ottoman Empire during World War I and the activity of Cardinal Angelo Maria Dolci, papal nuncio in Constantinople.

Karakhanian and Viganò are researchers of the Vatican Secret Archives who have gathered every document the Holy See possesses on the Armenian Genocide.

Turkey's Willful Amnesia

Next Friday, April 24, Armenians the world over will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the mass killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey, now widely recognized as the first genocide of the 20th century. Widely, that is, outside Turkey, where the government and the majority of Turks continue to furiously attack anyone who speaks of genocide.

When Pope Francis used the term at a memorial service for the Armenian victims on Sunday, Turkey recalled its ambassador from the Vatican and a government minister insidiously noted that the pope was Argentine, and “in Argentina, the Armenian diaspora controls the media and business.” And even before the European Parliament passed a resolution on Wednesday urging Turkey to recognize the genocide and seek a “genuine reconciliation” with the Armenians, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan declared that whatever the Europeans say “will go in one ear and out the other.”

Turkey angered by pope's use of 'G-word’

Cengiz Çandar 

Less than two weeks before the centennial of the Armenian genocide, the leader of the world's billion Catholics made remarks that shocked the Turkish government and gave a dramatic boost to those who believe genocide was committed in 1915. 

Pope Francis offered the comments during his April 12 sermon at St. Peter’s Basilica, attended by Armenian dignitaries including Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Catholicos Karekin II, the highest religious authority of the Armenian Apostolic Church. “The first, which is widely considered the first genocide of the 20th century, struck your own Armenian people. Bishops and priests, religious women and men, the elderly and even defenseless children and infirm were murdered,” he said.