“Metz Yeghern” is the Armenian term for the Armenian genocide, like the Holocaust term “Shoa” for the Jews.

In the last years, Vatican Popes have reffered to the Armenian genocide as “Metz Yeghern” in their speeches.

Attached Image
from www.ihradio.org
As the Catholic World News reports on 20 March 2006,Pope Benedict XVI held a meeting with Catholic Armenians (most Armenians are Apostolic/Orthodox) and said that Metz Yeghern contributed to the division of the Armenian nation.

A tragic history has contributed to the divisions among Armenian Christians, the Pope observed. He mentioned the Metz Yeghern, or "great evil," that saw hundreds of thousands of Armenians slaughtered by Turkish persecutors during the forced migration from the Mediterranean to the land now known as Armenia. While the Armenian Apostolic Church is now established both in that country and in Lebanon, the diaspora caused the Armenian Catholic community to find a new base in Lebanon.

Read the whole article at http://www.cwnews.com/news/viewstory.cfm?recnum=43071