Pope Francis wraps up Armenia trip amid Turkey tensions

Pope Francis wrapped up his trip to Armenia with an open-air liturgy and a visit to the Orthodox country’s closed border with Turkey amid new tensions with Ankara over his recognition of the 1915 “genocide”.

Turkey issued a harsh rebuttal late yesterday to Francis’s declaration that the slaughter of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago was planned genocide.

Turkish deputy prime minister Nurettin Canikli said the comments bore the hallmarks of the “mentality of the Crusades”.