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Pope Leo XIV held prayers astatine the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral successful Istanbul connected Sunday (November 30, 2025) successful a motion of enactment for Christian unity and Christian minorities successful Turkiye.
Beyond its ecumenical symbolism, the sojourn signals quiescent enactment of ongoing efforts to heal century-old wounds betwixt Turkiye and Armenia, agelong scarred by wide killings and decades of mistrust, observers note.
An estimated 1.5 cardinal Armenians died successful massacres, deportations and forced marches that began successful 1915 successful Ottoman Turkiye. Historians wide presumption the lawsuit arsenic genocide.
Turkiye denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civilian warfare and unrest. It has lobbied to forestall countries from officially recognising the massacres arsenic genocide.
Influence of Pope Francis lingers
Pope Francis did not sojourn immoderate Armenian sites during his sojourn to Turkiye successful 2014, but connected his mode to the airdrome earlier departing, helium made an unscripted halt astatine a infirmary wherever the ailing Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II was being treated.
A twelvemonth later, Francis drew Ankara's ire by referring to the slaughter of Armenians during the Ottoman epoch arsenic “the archetypal genocide of the 20th century.” He aboriginal visited Armenia, wherever helium again utilized the word genocide.
Pope Leo has steered wide of contention during his archetypal six months arsenic pope and connected Sunday lone made a subtle notation to the sufferings.
“This sojourn provides maine with the accidental to convey God for the courageous Christian witnesser of the Armenian radical passim history, often amid tragic circumstances,” helium said.
Pope Leo's sojourn comes arsenic Turkiye and Armenia look to beryllium moving person toward a normalisation of their ties, and the pontiff's sojourn is apt to lend enactment to those efforts, said Richard Giragosian, the founding manager of the Regional Studies Centre based successful Yerevan, Armenia.
“More than conscionable the symbolic value of bringing the Vatican person to the Armenian Church successful presumption of the eastbound religion outreach, (the visit) is also, successful immoderate ways, promoting Armenia-Turkish normalisation,” Giragosian said.
Pope Leo arrived successful Turkiye connected Thursday connected his archetypal overseas sojourn to people the 1,700th day of the Council of Nicaea, present the municipality of Iznik, wherever the agreed Christian Church agreed connected a shared creed of faith. He was past scheduled to proceed to Lebanon.
The Armenia and Azerbaijan struggle plays a role
Turkiye and Armenia person nary ceremonial diplomatic ties, and their borderline has remained closed since the 1990s. In 2021, the countries agreed to enactment toward normalisation, appointing peculiar envoys to research steps toward reconciliation and reopening the frontier.
Those talks person progressed successful parallel with efforts to easiness tensions betwixt Armenia and Azerbaijan, a adjacent Turkish ally. Turkiye supported Azerbaijan during its 2020 struggle with Armenia for power of the Karabakh region, known internationally arsenic Nagorno-Karabakh, a struggle that had lasted astir 4 decades.
Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Turkiye successful June for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He aboriginal told a radical of Turkish journalists successful Yerevan that pursuing planetary designation of the genocide is not among his government's priorities, portion emphasising the genocide is an “indisputable fact” for Armenians.
Pope Leo was not expected to property for the ceremonial designation of genocide.
“That's not portion of the normalisation engagement. So it's beauteous wide that helium volition debar either the connection oregon the reference,” Giragosian said.
“It is not important contiguous to accidental genocide oregon not,” said Mardik Evadian, an Armenian businessman attending the service. "We are surviving successful this country, and we are blessed to unrecorded here.”
