article_snippet.sent: Pope Francis' has angered the Turkish government by describing the mass-murders of up to 1.5million Armenians in 1915 as 'the first .
article_snippet.sent: genocide of the 20th century'.
article_snippet.sent: Today was the first time Pope Francis has publicly used  'genocide' to describe the massacre, although it is a term used by many European and South American governments.
article_snippet.sent: Supreme Patriarch Kerekin II called Supreme Patriarch Kerekin II 'the first genocide of .
article_snippet.sent: already publicly characterised the mass killings as genocide.
article_snippet.sent: the Armenian mass killings in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican are regarded by many historians as the first genocide of the 20th century, and are said to have inspired Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.
article_snippet.sent: Several European countries recognize the massacres as genocide as such, though Italy and the United States, for example, have avoided using the term officially given the importance Several European countries place on Turkey as an ally.
article_snippet.sent: 100 years ago as 'the first genocide of the 20th century', which . was followed by 'Nazism and Stalinism'. '
highlights_snippet.sent: Pope calls mass murder of Armenians 'first genocide of the 20th century'
  The 1915 killings saw 1.5m Armenians slaughtered by Ottoman Turks .
  