Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram Hamparian offered the following comment regarding Pope Francis statement reaffirming the Armenian Genocide, made earlier today during an unprecedented Vatican mass commemorating the 100th anniversary of that crime.

"Turkey underestimates, at its own risk, the power of our worldwide movement - a profoundly moral movement inspired by truth and driven by our shared hope for a fair and enduring peace based on a just international resolution of the Armenian Genocide," stated Hamparian.

Pope Francis said during a Mass in the Armenian Catholic rite in St. Peter's Basilica to mark 100 years since the Armenian Genocide that the first Genocide of the twentieth century was perpetrated against Armenians.