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Turkish officials continued to vent their fury at Pope Francis on Monday, one day after he called the mass killing of Armenians a century ago “the first genocide of the 20th century,” at a commemorative mass at the Vatican, The New York Times writes.

The latest outraged response came from Volkan Bozkir, Turkey’s minister for European affairs, who significantly upped the ante on his colleagues by suggesting that Argentines as whole, and not just the pope, had been brainwashed by rich and powerful Armenians in their midst.

In remarks broadcast on national television, Mr. Bozkir sought to provide an explanation for where Argentines might have gotten the idea that the 1.5 million Armenians killed between 1915 and 1923 in the last days of the Ottoman Empire had been slaughtered intentionally.

“In Argentina,” Mr. Bozkir asserted, “the Armenian diaspora controls the media and business.” The minister provided no evidence for his assertion and was not asked for any.