On February 5, 2019, the French President Emmanuel Macron announced that on April 24, the Armenian genocide will be commemorated in France for the first time; this was one of the presidential candidate’s campaign promises back in 2017.

From April 1915 to July 1916—and even up until 1923, the Black Book of Talaat Pacha, the main culprit in the killings, counts over 1.2 million victims, that is to say, 77% of the Armenian population at the time.

The reports from two direct witnesses, the Lazarist Fathers Lobry and Dekemppeneer, that were transmitted to the Vatican and have since been published, prove that the political leaders of the Muslim State deliberately and methodically orchestrated the massacres of the Armenian Christians.

Pope Benedict XV personally intervened with the Sultan Mehmed V to put an end to the genocide, but in vain. In fact, this denunciation of the crimes only made things worse for the Christians in the country.

It was this experience that inspired Pope Pius XII, 25 years later, to prefer a more silent approach to Hitler’s acts of violence in occupied Europe, which made it possible for him to accomplish far more effective feats on the field. This approach saved hundreds of thousands of lives.