Pope’s description of Armenian deaths as genocide was political: lawyer

- The Pope has described the alleged killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey in 1915 as genocide. Why did he do so? Was there any pressure on him to use the word "genocide” as some political analysts claim? 

- If you looked at the root causes of this issue, you would see a malicious attitude (by the Pope). The Pope and the Vatican sought to sow discord for centuries to protect itself from the Ottoman Empire. It’s entirely a political decision to describe the 100-year-old events as genocide. It is groundless from a historical point of view. The Turkish state has always said it’s ready to open its archives to find out what exactly happened a century ago. There were many deaths on both sides during the hostilities. Therefore, it would be wrong to say that only Armenians died and that it was genocide.  When he lived in Argentina, the Pope researched the issue for scientific purposes. The Pope used the 100th anniversary of the events to reveal his research on the alleged genocide. The Pope described the events as genocide for political reasons. He did so to stoke tensions between states. It was a wrong decision on the part of the Vatican. Sooner or later, the Vatican will realize its mistake and apologize to Turkey.  

- The Pope had visited Turkey before his statement on the Armenian "genocide”. He is expected to visit Yerevan on April 24. Is it possible that the Pope was somewhat displeased with the results of his visit to Turkey?  

- Turkey has been growing in the past decade. The country has not been affected by the global economic crisis. The Vatican doesn’t like to see Turkey growing at a time when some neighboring economies are shrinking. It takes every opportunity to implement its anti-Turkey plans. The Pope’s description of the events as genocide has nothing to do with his visit to Turkey. The Vatican doesn’t want Turkey to expand its relations with developed nations of the world. Turkey has troubled relations with Israel. Yet, this doesn’t cause serious problems for Turkey. The Vatican is doing everything it can to prevent Turkey from growing.  Azerbaijan has a very warm relationship with the Vatican. The Pope should have taken this into account while using the word "genocide”. Unfortunately, he didn’t. He behaved very aggressively. The main goal is to prevent Turkey from gaining more influence in the region.

- The European Parliament has adopted a resolution, calling on member states to recognize the alleged killings of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey as genocide. What’s your view of the resolution?

- More and more countries are recognizing the events as genocide. This has become a trend in recent years. Particularly, countries with powerful Armenian lobby groups and Armenian communities are recognizing the "genocide”. Thanks to efforts by powerful Armenian lobby groups, some small US states have passed resolutions, recognizing the 1915 events as genocide. This doesn’t mean that the international community recognizes the alleged genocide. Yet, this process needs to be stopped. The main goal of the Armenian drive to ensure international recognition of the "genocide” is to prevent Turkey’s growth. Armenians have not been very successful on this in the past 15 years because the world knows that Armenians have almost no evidence to support the claim.