BRUSSELS, April 15 (UPI) -- The European Union on Wednesday joined the Pope in recognizing the Armenian genocide 100 years after it occurred and called on Turkey to do the same.
The European Parliament voted Wednesday to recognize the massacre long denied by the Turkish government.
Starting in 1915 and ending in the 1920s, the Ottoman Empire deported and killed much of its Armenian population. It is estimated roughly 1.5 million Armenians died as a result.
Members of the European Parliament voted on a resolution stressing the need for Turkey to recognize the Armenian genocide so that it may then lead to "genuine reconciliation" between the two nations.
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The EU encouraged the two countries to "use examples of successful reconciliation between European nations" to establish diplomatic relations and opening the border.
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu issued a statement after the vote accusing the EU of attempting "to rewrite history."
"We do not take seriously those who adopted this resolution by mutilating history and law," he said. "The participation of the EU citizens with a rate of 42 percent in 2014 elections already implies the place that this Parliament occupies in the political culture of the EU."
The EU resolution also commended Pope Francis for his recognition of the genocide Sunday.
"In the past century, our human family has lived through three massive and unprecedented tragedies," the Pope said at a Mass at St. Peter's Basilica. "The first, which is widely considered 'the first genocide of the twentieth century,' struck your own Armenian people."
The statement upset the Turkish government, which immediately pulled its ambassador from the Vatican.
Turkey's foreign minister tweeted the remarks the Pope made were based on "unfounded allegations."
Despite not recognizing that a mass killing occurred, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan last spring offered condolences to the families of the Armenians killed in World War I.
Erdogan's comments, on the eve of the 99th anniversary of the start of mass deportation of Armenians from Turkey, referred to the incidents as "our shared pain...having experienced events which had inhumane consequences, such as relocation, during the first world war should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes."
The Armenian National Committee of America applauded both the EU and the Pope for their recognition of the genocide, saying their comments shine a spotlight on U.S. President Barack Obama, who the organization expects to make a similar proclamation April 24, the day widely regarded as the start of the massacre.
"The European Parliament's strong stand for a truthful and just resolution of the Armenian genocide underscores the stark nature of the choice before President Obama," ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian said. "This April 24th, President Obama can take his moral cues from Pope Francis or Recep Erdogan. He can stand up for truth, along with the European Parliament, our top NATO allies, 43 U.S. states, a growing pro-justice Turkish civil society movement, and the moral conscience of the world community. Or he can opt -- on the solemn centennial of this crime -- to continue enforcing a foreign government's gag-rule on honest American discourse on the Armenian genocide."
Ed Adamczyk and Thor Benson contributed to this report.
