Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has criticized Pope Francis for describing the mass killing of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire 100 years ago as “genocide.”
In a speech in Ankara on April 14, Erdogan said, "I condemn the pope and would like to warn him not to make similar mistakes again."
He added that when political or religious leaders played the role of historians, what resulted was "delirium, not fact."
At a special remembrance mass on April 12, Pope Francis called the slaughter of Armenians in 1915 "the first genocide of the 20th century."
Ankara later announced it was recalling its ambassador to the Vatican for consultations.
The slaughter and deportation of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks is considered by many historians and several nations as genocide.
Turkey objects, saying that Armenians died in much smaller numbers and because of civil strife rather than a planned Ottoman government effort to annihilate the Christian minority.
