YEREVAN. – The mass, which the Pope celebrated on April 12 at St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican, is a key achievement of Armenia’s foreign policy.

Ruling Republican Party of Armenia (RPA) MP Samvel Farmanyan, who had attended the mass, stated the aforesaid at a press conference on Tuesday.

“It was for the first time that the pontiff of the Catholic Church celebrated such a mass. Second, Pope Francis did not evade calling it like it is, calling what happened to the Armenians as genocide. Third, the prayer of our [Armenian] catholicoi also was voiced for the first time, [and] which has a great message.

“It was very important for us[, Armenians,] also the fact that, for the first time throughout the history of the Catholic and Armenian Apostolic Churches, Saint Gregory of Narek was declared a Doctor of the Universal Church,” the RPA deputy said.

In his words, the Turkish reaction to the mass was expected, whereas in the case of the Armenians, the optimism has risen after April 12.

“We have a lot of need for such positive impulses,” Farmanyan added.

As reported earlier, during the aforesaid mass, which was devoted to the victims of the Armenian Genocide, Pope Francis stated that the Armenians had become the victims of the first genocide in the 20th century, and simply because of their ethnicity.