Adding to angry comments about the Pope Francis’ description of the Ottoman-era killing of Armenians as genocide, Turkey’s prime minister said on Wednesday that the pontiff has joined “an evil front” plotting against Turkey. Ahmet Davutoglu made the comments at an event in Ankara outlining the ruling party’s platform for June parliamentary elections and presenting its candidates. He called the pope’s description of the killings of an estimated 1.5 million Armenians as “the first genocide of the 20th century” unjust. Turkey responded to the pope’s words Sunday by recalling its ambassador to the Vatican.
Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as genocide Turkey, however, has insisted that the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest, not genocide. It has fiercely lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognising the massacres as genocide.