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Pope Francis called on neighbours Armenia and Turkey to lay aside their differences and also expressed his hopes for peace in the Caucasus region during an ecumenical prayer service in the Armenian capital Yerevan, Al Jazeera  writes.

“May God bless your future and grant that the people of Armenia and Turkey take up again the path of reconciliation, and may peace also spring forth in Nagorno-Karabakh,” the news agency quotes the Pope.

Al Jazeera also writes about the Pope’s speech when he condemned the 1915 mass killings of Armenians by Turkish Ottoman troops as “genocide”, a term strongly denied by Turkey.

The news agency reminds that the remark was the second time the Pope has referred to the killings as genocide, following a similar statement in 2015, when Ankara withdrew its ambassador from the Vatican in protest.

Al Jazeera also writes about the Karabakh Conflict and difficult relations between Armenia and Azerbaijan.

“The two nations have rival claims to Nagorno-Karabakh, an Armenian enclave in Azeri territory where violence broke out in April, killing at least 120 people,” the agency writes.