ARMENIA – Pope John Paul, on the second day of his stay in Armenia, is to visit a memorial to the hundreds of thousands of Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923 in what Armenians insist was a genocide by the Ottoman Turks.
The visit is expected to anger Turkey, which rejects the genocide accusations. Turkey says 300,000 Armenians died in internal fighting during the Ottoman Empire’s final years.
The pope also meets Wednesday with Armenian President Robert Kocharian.
The pontiff, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease, showed visible signs of fatigue and was unable to complete an address Tuesday. But he later perked up and waved his cane at journalists during a walk with the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin II.
The pope’s three-day visit is to celebrate Armenia’s 1,700 years as a Christian nation. On his arrival, he called for tolerance and reconciliation among faiths.
The pope arrived in Armenia after a three-day visit to mainly Muslim Kazakhstan. There, he reaffirmed the Roman Catholic Church’s respect for what he called “authentic Islam – the Islam that prays and is concerned for those in need.”
