Armenia will officially apply to the Pope Francis with a request to open the archives of Vatican related to the Armenian Genocide in 1915, Director of National Archives of Armenia Amatuni Virabyan informed journalists.
He recalled that Vatican has already opened part of its archives for historians. However, there are still a lot of secret documents, which may contain a lot of data related to the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire.
According to Virabyan the fact of the Armenian Genocide is confirmed not only by the documents kept in the Armenian archives but also in the archives of Germany, Austria and Great Britain. Opening of the secret archives of Vatican will become an additional evidence of those events. Besides, the expert noted that if the documents of the other countries, which participated in the WWI may be considered biased, Vatican's archives will become an unbiased evidence of the massacres of the Armenian people on the territory of the Ottoman Empire", he stated.
To note, Pope Francis will pay a visit to Armenia on June 24-26. On Friday 24 June Welcoming Service will be held in the Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin. Saturday 25 June, Divine Liturgy will be offered by Pope Francis in the Vardanants Square of Gyumri. Later on the same day, Ecumenical Service and Peace Prayer is scheduled in the Republic Square of Yerevan, offered by His Holiness Karekin II and Pope Francis. Sunday 26 June, Pope Francis and Karekin II will sign a joint statement. The Pope will sum up his visit by visiting Khor Virap, an Armenian church near the border with Turkey.