Author:
Publication: Zenit.org
Date: September 26, 2001
Doesn´t Want World to Forget
This Holocaust
John Paul II paid a moving tribute
this morning to the 1.5 million Armenians killed in a genocide last century,
in the hope that the world will never again witness "such inhuman aberrations."
"Listen, O Lord, to the lament that
rises from this place, to the call of the dead from the depths of the Metz
Yeghérn," the Pope prayed at the Titzernakaberd Memorial, in the
presence of Armenian Apostolic Patriarch Karekin II.
In Armenian, "Metz Yeghérn"
means "great crime" or "great evil." Armenians use the term to refer to
the genocide that began under the Ottoman Empire in 1915.
The Turkish government does not
consider the loss of life as a genocide but rather as the normal consequence
of war and civil upheavals.
"We are appalled by the terrible
violence done to the Armenian people, and dismayed that the world still
knows such inhumanity," the Pope said during his prayer.
"But, renewing our hope in your
promise, we implore, O Lord, rest for the dead in the peace which knows
no end, and the healing of still open wounds through the power of your
love," the Holy Father concluded.
The ceremony took place in the Armenian
capital, in the shadow of Mount Ararat, where the Bible indicates Noah's
ark came to rest. The mountain is on the Turkish side of the border.
Armenian priests, wearing the typical
black hoods of their Church, met around the eternal flame that commemorates
the innocent victims. During the prayer, a choir sang heart-rending songs
in tones that were foreign to the Eastern and Western traditions. Armenian
singer Charles Aznavour sang the "Ave Maria."
During the prayer, John Paul II
recalled that, in 1915, Pope Benedict XV made a courageous appeal to the
Ottoman sultan in defense of "the sorely afflicted Armenian people brought
to the brink of annihilation."
Before arriving at the memorial,
the Holy Father paid a courtesy visit to President Robert Kotcharian in
the Presidential Palace. They had a private meeting. Then the Pope, accompanied
by Apostolic Patriarch zarekin II, greeted Kotcharian's principal collaborators.
