Pope Francis recalls Armenian genocide

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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