Pope in Armenia.

Yerevan--On the second leg of his Eurasian trip, September 25-27, the Pope visited Armenia, the world's first Christian nation (cf C.I., Sept. 01, 'Armenia', p.27). During his visit, he was a guest at the residence of Patriarch Karekin II of the Armenian Apostolic Church. This Eastern non-Orthodox Church reconciled its last differences about the nature of Christ with Rome in 1996. Only differences over the recognition of papal primacy still keep Catholics and Armenian Apostolic Christians from full communion.

The Holy Father was at pains during his visit to extol the heroism of Armenian Christians. Joining in the 1,700 years' an anniversary of Christianity, he said that "martyrdom has been the special mark of the Armenian Church and people." Visiting the Tzitzernagaberd monument, dedicated to the memory of the 1.5 million Armenians who died at Turkish hands between 1915 and 1923, he said, "We are appalled by the terrible evil done to the Armenian people and dismayed that the world still knows such inhumanity."

The pope also paid visits to the cathedral in the Armenian Holy See of Etchmiadzin and to the new Apostolic Cathedral of St. Gregory the Illuminator in Yerevan. On the latter occasion, His Holiness took the opportunity to press for a continuation of dialogue between he Churches. "Let us walk together and in hand," he said, "so that the world of the 21st century and the new millennium may believe."

A very large cross has been erected in Yerevan's Republic Square, where once stood an imposing statue of Lenin. It was surrounded by 1700 candles in celebration of Armenia's conversion to the Christian faith in 301. Surrounded by Islam throughout history, Armenia has suffered for the faith. The country's martyrdom reached its apex in 1915 with the extermination carried out by the Turks. This was the first holocaust of the 20th century, resulting in 1.5 million dead. Many history books either ignore the event or dismiss it with a few words.

Future of Armenia

According to a report from Zenit, Armenia, a nation with a great past, does not seem to have a future. Her territory has been reduced to one-fifth of its original size. She looks nostalgically at Mount Ararat, which rises to the west of Yerevan, but which today is in Turkey. Armenians are scattered throughout the world. Their homeland was scourged by a devastating earthquake in 1988, and by the Nagorno-Karabakh war in the early 1990s. Today the country is governed by an ally of Vladimir Putin, financed by the West, and subjected to an embargo imposed by Turkey and Azerbaijan, neighbouring Muslim states. A mafia and corruption devour Armenia from within.

Officially, Armenia has 3.5 million inhabitants, but no one knows the exact number. "The most prudent estimates say 800,000 people have left, but it is probably more than a million, virtually one out of every three citizens," explained Lyudmila Harutyunan, a professor of sociology of Yerevan University. "Within a few decades, Armenia will be a distant memory, like the Assyrian civilization," elderly writer and film director Aghasi Aivasyan said bitterly.

The new Armenian bourgeoisie predominates in the city. It is a Russian-speaking elite that benefits from all kinds of business, and includes 10% of the population, while 50% are below the poverty line, and the rest survive on $30 a month.

Armenia exists thanks to foreign aid: financing from international organizations, emigrants' remittances, and dollars from the diaspora. There are some 3 million Armenians in the rest of the world, but none returned after the collapse of the Soviet Union. "They send us money but they are ashamed of us," said Samuel Kazarian, a famous sculptor now working on Yerevan's new cathedral. According to him, it is important to send one's own children to defend Nagorno-Karabakh, the Armenian enclave in Azerbaijan, which has been living with a fragile truce since 1994, waiting for definition of its juridical status. Former president Ter-Petrosian was prepared to sign an agreement with the enemy but, precisely because of this, he was forced to resign.

Genocide

On the last day of his visit to Armenia, John Paul II asked for forgiveness for the faults committed by believers in Jesus Christ against Christian unity. The Pope expressed his mea culpa as he celebrated Mass for Armenian Catholics and Apostolic Christians at the "great altar" in the garden of Etchmiadzin, residence of the Apostolic Church. "Is this not a wonderful sign of our common faith?" he asked. "Does it not express the yearning of so many of our brothers and sisters who wish to see us advance quickly on the path of unity? My own heart is eager to hasten the day when we shall celebrate together the Divine Sacrifice which makes us all one," the Pope said solemnly, addressing Patriarch Karekin II directly. "At this altar, which is your altar, I beg the Lord to forgive us our past failings against unity and to lead us to the love that overcomes all barriers."

On the eve of John Paul II's visit to Armenia, the international press wondered if he would use the word "genocide" to describe the mass killings carried out by the Ottoman Empire early last century. Dispelling all doubts, on the last day of his stay, the Pope used the term in English in a joint declaration signed with Armenian Apostolic Patriarch Karekin II.

"The extermination of 1.5 million Armenian Christians, in what is generally referred to as the first genocide of the 20th century, and the subsequent annihilation of thousands under the former totalitarian regime, are tragedies that still live in the memory of the present-day generation," the document states.

During the papal prayer at the Tzitzernagaberd Memorial on Wednesday, the Pontiff used the term "Metz Yeghern," which in Armenian means "great crime" or "great evil." It is the word used by Armenians to refer to the 1915 genocide against their people.

Turkey has opposed the use of the term "genocide" to describe those events, and states that there were only 300,000 victims and that they died "in the course of deportations that took place in the framework of the First World War." Ankara has taken measures against all countries that label the Armenian massacre as a genocide, including France and Italy, whose Parliaments recognized the genocide publicly. It is not anticipated that Turkey will do the same with the Vatican.

(Zenit, Sept. 25-27 reports)