Al-Rahi Travels to Armenia for Genocide Centennial

Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi traveled to Armenia on Tuesday to attend the centenary commemoration of the Armenian genocide.

Free Patriotic Movement chief MP Michel Aoun telephoned al-Rahi to wish him luck in his trip, the state-run National News Agency reported.

They also discussed the developments in Lebanon and the region, it said.

Armenians in Armenia and the diaspora, including Lebanon, will on April 24 mark the 100th anniversary of the start of a campaign of genocide by Ottoman forces in World War I to wipe them out of Anatolia.

Turkey on Monday sought to reach out to Armenians, saying it shared their pain and wanted to heal the wounds of the past.

In his conciliatory message, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stopped well short of recognizing the killings as a genocide -- as Armenians want -- but explicitly referred to deadly deportations of "Ottoman Armenians.”

Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I, an event widely viewed by scholars as the first genocide of the 20th century. Turkey however, denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated, and that those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

From Armenia, al-Rahi will head to France.

Lebanon's presidential deadlock is expected to top the agenda of talks between him and French President Francois Hollande.

“The presidential election issue must be addressed locally and in cooperation with Saudi Arabia and Iran,” said the patriarch ahead of traveling to Armenia on Tuesday.

Al-Rahi will also inaugurate Europe's Maronite Diocese in the town of Meudon in the French capital's suburbs.