When replying to media's questions live on April 16, Russian President Vladimir Putin expressed hope that the situation around Pope Francis' recent statement on the Armenian Genocide will be settled.
Interfax-Religion quotes Putin as saying, "I do not want to interfere in the Pope's dispute with Turkey. I consider the Pope to an authoritative person in the world and I think he will find the way to make himself understood by all the people on our planet regardless of their confession."
The President pointed out that he is not so well familiar with the situation and added, "I am sure that people in Turkey are clever and flexible enough to figure it out and to remove the problems if they arise."
The source recalls that on April 12 during a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica Pope Francis said that the annihilation of 1.5 mln Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was "the first Genocide of XX century". He called the Genocide one of the three massive and unprecedented tragedies of XX century along with Nazism and Stalinism.
The Pope for the first time used the "genocide" term when describing the events of 1915. Following the Sunday Mass, observers pointed out that the Pope's comments would cause diplomatic complications between Ankara and Vatican. Vatican's ambassador to Ankara was summoned to the Foreign Ministry for explanations and the Turkish ambassador to Vatican was recalled "for consultations"