VATICAN CITY (AP) — Turkey's foreign ministry says it is recalling its ambassador to the Vatican after Pope Francis on Sunday called the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks "the first genocide of the 20th century."
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry said that the Turkish people would not recognize the Pope's statement "which is controversial in every aspect, which is based on prejudice, which distorts history and reduces the pains suffered in Anatolia under the conditions of the First World War to members of just one religion."