Vatican City - Pope Francis on Thursday recalled the
Armenian genocide in the early 20th century during an audience
with Karekin II, head of the Catholicate of Etchmiadzin of the
Armenian Apostolic Church.
"The number of disciples who shed their blood for Christ in
the tragic events of the last century is certainly higher than
that of the early martyrs," Francis told Karekin II, elected
132nd Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians in 1999.
"In this martyrology the children of the Armenian nation
have a place of honour," continued the Argentinian pontiff.
"Their tragic and noble testimony must not be forgotten,"
he said.
"Just as in the early Church the blood of the martyrs sowed
the seed of new Christians, so in modern times the blood of many
Christians has become the seed of unity" among Christian
churches, continued the pope.
An estimated 1.5 million Armenians were systematically
exterminated under the Ottoman Empire during the First World War
in what is said to be the second most studied act of genocide
after the Jewish Holocaust three decades later.
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