POPE RELEASES PEACE DOVES ON
ARMENIA- TURKEY BORDER
Pope Francis on 3rd July,2016, Sunday released peace
doves on the Armenia-Turkey border in a gesture of reconciliation as Ankara
slammed the pontiff for denouncing the mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman
forces as “genocide”.Standing on a terrace of the Khor Virap monastery, Pope
Francis and the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church Kareki- II released the
two white birds in the direction of Mount Ararat — the Biblical final resting
place of Noah’s Ark — now in modern-day Turkey.
The
long-planned gesture at the end of a three-day visit to Armenia came in the
face of fresh Turkish ire after Pope Francis used the word “genocide” to refer
to the century-old slaughter that Ankara furiously rejects.The Vatican was
forced to refute claims from Turkey that Pope Francis showed a “mentality of
the Crusades”.Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Nurettin Canikli late on Saturday
labelled the Pope’s declaration “very unfortunate” and said it bore traces of
“the mentality of the Crusades”. “It is not an objective statement that
conforms with reality,” Mr. Canikli said.The Vatican rejected the allegations
and said the Pope was trying to build “bridges not walls” and had nothing
against Turkey.
Prof. John Kurakar
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