Pope Francis will visit a memorial to the Armenians slaughtered by the Ottoman empire in 1915, in what will be a diplomatically sensitive trip to the country which borders Turkey.
Francis is flying on Friday, June 24, to Armenia for a three day visit to the country which will see him release a flock of doves at the Armenian-Turkish border and visit the Tzitzernakaberd memorial to those killed a century ago in Yerevan.
It is unlikely, however, that the Pope will describe the massacre as a “genocide,” a term which is hotly contested by the Turks.
In a briefing to journalists today, Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Director of the Holy See Press Office, said the Armenian expression of “Medz Yeghern” (meaning great crime) is preferred by the Vatican.
“An Armenian friend of mine said the phrase ‘Metz Yeghern’ is even stronger than the word genocide, and I prefer to use this word in order not to be trapped by the questions that merely revolve around the use of a word,” he said.
The Pope has already described the mass killings of Armenians as a genocide: but when he did so in April 2015 it led to Turkey recalling its Ambassador to the Holy See, although he has since returned.
Some in the Holy See believe that given Francis has used the term already, he does not need to repeat it during the forthcoming visit.
Fr. Lombardi explained that when the Pope was in Argentina he became friends with an Armenian evangelical pastor, whose journalist daughter, Evangelina Himitian, wrote a biography of Francis. She will be among the six hundred journalists covering the visit in the country.
The Pope will arrive in Yerevan on Friday where he will meet Catholicos Karekin II, leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the President Serzh Sargsyan.
On Saturday he will go to the memorial to the around 1.5 million Armenians killed by the Ottomans where he will pray and meet with descendants of those persecuted at that time. Later that day he will fly to Gymuri, a city hit by a violent earthquake in the 1980s and while there will visit an orphanage and celebrate the only public Mass of the trip.
Back in Yerevan in the evening he will take part in an ecumenical meeting and prayer for peace while on Sunday will take part in a liturgy at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral. Finally, he will travel the monastery of Khor Virap where he will release the doves in the direction of Mount Ararat - a mountain on the eastern fringe of Turkey.
Francis is not the first Pope to go to Armenia: In 2001 John Paul II visited the country and signed a document which described the massacres in 1915 as genocide.
