Armenia President Hopes Pope Trip Recalls Persecution

ARMENIA PRESIDENT HOPES POPE TRIP RECALLS PERSECUTION

EREVAN, Armenia, Sep 25, 01 (CWNews.com) - Armenian President Robert Kocharian has said that he hopes the visit by Pope John Paul II to his country this week will call worldwide attention to the genocide suffered by Armenia in 1915.

Speaking to the Italian daily Avvenire prior to the Pope's arrival, Kocharian said that the "civilized world" should recognize the "crime" of 1915 as a "prologue for the horrors that followed"-- the mass killings of the 20th century.

The Armenian leaders pointed out that Pope John Paul will visit an Armenian memorial to massacre victims, and that last November the Holy See and the Armenian Apostolic Church produced a joint statement recognizing the Armenian genocide.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives, and many more were forced to leave their homes, during a brutal campaign conducted by the Ottoman empire in 1915. Armenian leaders have struggled to make the world aware of that campaign.

CWN - Catholic World News
25. september 2001