Turkey has summoned the Vatican’s ambassador in Ankara in protest after Pope Francis quoted the word ‘genocide’ in referring to the mass killings of Armenians 100 years ago, under Ottoman rule in World War I.

An official said the ambassador was told Turkey was “deeply sorry and disappointed”, adding that the pope’s comments had caused a “problem of trust”.

Ankara has consistently denied that the killings were genocide and the issue is sensitive among ordinary people. In Istanbul opinions were divided after the pope’s comments.

“In Turkey the word genocide is wounding. Whenever it is mentioned, something bad happens. And people hesitate to talk about it. You can’t say it (genocide) happened, you can’t say it didn’t happen. My personal opinion, yes it did. When you look at history, there’s proof of it. Yes, there was a massacre, on both sides. There are plenty of sources that go back to (Turkey’s founder) Ataturk’s time” said one woman, Aysun Vayic Olger.

A young man, Mucahit Yuc