Turkish Foreign Ministry responds to Pope’s Genocide remarks

Turkey’s Foreign Ministry has issued a response to Pope Francis’ statement recognizing the 1915 mass killings of the Armenians as a crime of genocide.

In a press release issued Sunday, it says that the remark is not in line with the Pontific's calls for peace and dialogue made during a visit to the country in November.

“Statements which are controversial in every aspect, based on prejudices, distorting the history and confining the sufferings in Anatolia, amid the conditions of World War I, to a single religious community are declared null and void by the Republic of Turkey and the Turkish nation," reads the statement.

In his address delivered at the rite Mass in Vatican's St Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pope described the 1915 events as the “first genocide of the 20th century”.

Ankara later called its ambassador in Vatican to the Foreign Ministry for consultations.