Istanbul: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan has condemned Pope Francis for saying that the 1915 mass killing of Armenians was genocide and warned him not to make such a statement again.
The pontiffpublicly called the killing of as many as 1.5 million Armenians "genocide" on Sunday, prompting a diplomatic row with Turkey, which summoned the Vatican's envoy and recalled its own.
Prelates take photos as Pope Francis celebrates an Armenian-Rite Mass in the Vatican on Sunday. Photo: AP
Muslim Turkey agrees Christian Armenians were killed in clashes with Ottoman soldiers that began on April 15, 1915, when Armenians lived in the empire ruled by Istanbul, but denies hundreds of thousands were killed and that this amounted to genocide.
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"We will not allow historical incidents to be taken out of their genuine context and be used as a tool to campaign against our country", Mr Erdogan said on Tuesday in a speech to a business group. "I condemn the Pope and would like to warn him not to make similar mistakes again".
While other Turkish politicians, and now Mr Erdogan, have lashed out at the Pope, some ordinary Turks have dismissed the row as empty politics and voiced a desire to leave history be.
Mr Erdogan's comments are likely to draw attention to whether the United States, a traditional ally of NATO member Turkey, will eventually use the term "genocide" for the mass killings.
Unlike almost two dozen European and South American states that use the term, Washington avoids it and has warned legislators that Ankara could cut off military co-operation if they voted to adopt it.
Reuters
Credit to Sydney Morning Herald
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