Pope Francis' visit to Armenia in June 2016

Once again, Pope Francis bares his ugly prejudice on Armenian “genocide”

By Ferruh Demirmen, Ph.D.
July 1, 2016

Pope Francis, visiting Armenia during June 24-26 (2016), once again succumbed to his anti-Turkish, anti-Muslim prejudice and called the 1915 events in Ottoman Anatolia “genocide.” To the delight of his hosts, hours after landing in Yerevan he departed from a prepared speech and used the despicable term “genocide” despite previous reassurances by the Vatican that he would not do so.
The Pontiff’s Christian emotions had taken over his common sense and decency.
The Pontiff repeated his anti-Turkish invective before leaving Armenia by “commemorating,” jointly with Kerekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church, "The extermination of a million and a half Armenian Christians … as the first genocide of the twentieth century."
Not surprisingly, the Pope’s language drew an angry rebuke from Ankara.
To placate Turkey, the Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi absurdly said: "The pope has not used any words against the Turkish people."
This is no place to delve into history to explain why the Pope’s accusations concerning the 1915 events are baseless. Suffice it to say that, the history and diplomatic jibe at Turkey aside, the Pope’s action was deplorable in several respects – all as breaches of trust.
Violating international norms

First, the Pope summarily violated international covenants and judicial rulings bearing on the crime of genocide. That includes the 1948 UN Convention on genocide, which states that the crime of genocide can only be established by a tribunal of law, and France’s Constitutional Council, which by its ruling on January 8, 2016, underlined this fact. Hence no entity other than a court of law can pass judgment on genocide.

The European Court on Human Rights (ECtHR), in its 2013 and 2015 rulings on the Switzerland-Perinçek case, noted that Armenian genocide is disputed among the scholars, and hence not an established fact. To date, there has been no court verdict on Armenian “genocide.”

Further, the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) bars retroactive application of a law to an event that preceded it. The 1948 UN Convention went into force in 1953. The UN has also refused to call the 1915 events genocide.

So, one must ask: Given these international fundamentals and precedents, what gave the Pope the right or authority to call the 1915 events genocide? Just because some biased scholars or politically motivated parliaments have done so, the Pope has no justification to say “genocide.” Multiple falsehoods do not make one right. The 1.5 million figure is also a myth.

The Pope’s “Holy status” and his “Godly mission” do not exempt him from observing the international covenants and the rule of law. The Pope, just like the “earthly beings,” must respect the law.

Further, the Pope cannot claim that he was simply expressing an “opinion.” Opinions cannot be used to attach a heinous crime to a person or group with impunity. The 1948 UN Convention does not give license to anybody to recognize genocide based on opinion.

Hypocrisy and double standard

The Pope’s “commemoration” of Armenian “genocide,” intended supposedly as a reminder to prevent such crimes in the future, becomes all the more hypocritical considering that, while recognizing Armenian “genocide,” he chose not to acknowledge the massacre of more than a half million Muslim civilians at the hands of renegade Armenian gangs during the World War I Armenian revolt.

Surely a sign of selective morality.

But there is more. The pontiff, on his visit to Bosnia in June 2015, refused to use the term “genocide” when he denounced the Srebrenica killings. This is despite the fact that two UN courts, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), have established that the Srebrenica killings were genocide.

Before the visit, the Bosnian academics had pleaded with the Pope to recognize the Srebrenica killings as genocide. The Pontiff ignored these pleadings. His Holiness could not bring himself to calling an event genocide if the perpetrators are Christian and the victims Muslim.

Surely a case of double standard.

The Srebrenica genocide is a recent (1995) history, and the location is a stone’s throw from the Holy See.

A Holy alliance?

The Pope’s stance on Armenian “genocide,” and his hypocrisy and double standard toward Muslim killings, have the hallmarks of blind solidarity with Christian Armenia. After all, Armenians keep reminding the world that they are the “First Christian Nation.” As the spiritual leader of the Christian world, the Pope surely cannot remain indifferent to that banner!

For His Holiness, international covenants and the rule of law do not matter!

In fact, the Pope’s recognition of Armenian “genocide” in Yerevan was not his “first.” He did the same thing during a religious ceremony in St. Peter’s Basilica on April 12, 2015 in the presence of top Armenian clerics and Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan. In that meeting he lumped other Anatolian Christian minorities such as the Assyrians in the “mass killings.”

The religion angle was not lost on German President Joachim Gauck, a former Protestant pastor, when, at an ecumenical service at the Berlin Cathedral on 23 April 2015, he “commemorated” the “genocide suffered by the Armenians, Aramaeans and Pontian Greeks.” Armenian clerics were duly present at the service. 

The inclusion of all-denomination Christians in the alleged genocide by the Pope and President Gauck set the stage for the German parliament Bundestag to include, in its June 2, 2016 resolution, all Christians in Anatolia under the genocide label.

These are sure signs of unconditional Christian solidarity, which is not conducive to ethnic and religious harmony in a world where religious tensions rise high. 

Concluding remarks

The Pope’s recognition of Armenian “genocide,” plus his hypocrisy and double standard toward Muslim killings, are a reflection of a deep-seated prejudice against Turks, and probably also Islam in general.

His Holiness’ prejudice, and the stance of those like President Gauck, hopefully do not presage the dawn of a new, post-modern crusade against Turks and the Muslim world. 

No doubt the Pope was also influenced by years of genocide propaganda run and funded by the Armenian Diaspora. This has led to a well-entrenched Western proclivity to accept Armenian claims as truth without forethought and reservation. The ad nauseam, prejudice, half-truths, deception, cherry-picking, exaggeration, intimidation, Reductio ad Hitlerum, and labelling (“denialist”) have been the techniques successfully employed in Armenian propaganda.

Whatever drives him, if His Holiness is serious about humanity and inter-faith dialog, as he claims he is, he should demonstrate that his concerns and compassion transcend racial, religious and ethnic boundaries.

Surely, the Pope’s call last year for the religious establishments in Europe to accept some of the refugees fleeing the fighting in Syria and Iraq is commendable. But it is also true that, when it comes to the Armenian accusations, His Holiness’ prejudice clouds his judgment.

For opinion on the Armenian question, the Pope should defer to historians, not just on the Armenian side, but also on the Turkish side.

If the Pope continues with his baseless accusations on Armenian “genocide,” he should be declared persona non grata in Turkey. His acting as the spokesman for the Armenian causes does not help Turkish-Armenian relations. It is more like a poison.