GENERAL

On the third day of his visit to Turkey, Pope Leo XIV gave a sermon and celebrated Mass at the Maslak (İstanbul) Volkswagen Arena in front of thousands of people. Attendance at the sermon and Mass was high. Clergy from other Christian communities also joined the Pope on stage. Reservations for the sermon, which was a first, were filled days in advance.

Twenty patriarchs and clergy gathered in Iznik after 1700 years and prayed together with Pope Leo XIV in the ancient Basilica of Saint Neophytos. The spirit of "unity" signed in Iznik came to the fore once again after 1700 years.

Pope Leo XIV's "prayer meeting" at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit - Saint Esprit became a shared expression of enthusiasm that overflowed the cathedral and centuries-old faith. Hundreds of people witnessed the historic ceremony that transformed the Pope's "First Apostolic Journey" into a divine moment, as the spirit of "unity" from the First Council of Nicaea prevailed.

Pope Leo XIV, President of the Vatican City State and spiritual leader of Catholics, conveyed the message to journalists on the special plane flying to Ankara, "We hope to emphasize how important peace is for the whole world." The Pope, who was welcomed by clerics and ministers at Esenboğa Airport, visited Anıtkabir. The Pope, also welcomed with an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex, held a private meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

A sad balance sheet: According to the data compiled by the Health and Safety Labour Watch * from the events it has access to, at least 42 child workers lost their lives in the first seven months of 2024. It is known that at least nine of the dead children were working within the scope of the MESEM program. ** Amendments to the Vocational Education Law in 2016 and 2021 paved the way for children to be used as cheap labor with a one-day "training" a week that remains on paper. Workerized children die while working and live a life without workers' rights, subjected to intense violence and physically and mentally injured. We discussed the issue with Ezgi Koman, who has been working in the field of child rights for years and is part of a program focusing on MESEMs at the FISA (Fikir ve Sanat Atölyesi) Child Rights Center.

In a letter of inquiry to Turkey’s Ambassador, Sadık Arslan, three groups tied to the UN Human Rights Council posed critical questions concerning what Armenians experienced in 1915 and the years that followed. Edvin Minassian, who lives in the United States, wrote about the importance of the letter and how the Armenian community has responded to it.

Artificial intelligence (AI)-powered robots are being introduced for automation in healthcare, and on the street as facial recognition software. However, AI robots can only be as smart and democratic as the data we feed into their algorithms and the persons who use them. AI can also amplify the historical and social injustices embedded in data. For AI and robot ethics, let’s not forget it is us – humans with all our prejudices – and not aliens from space, who are designing and deploying AI robots in healthcare and society.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan spoke at the symposium on ‘the Development and Vision of our Archives, and their Contribution to Research on History’ held on April 24 at Beştepe Millet Congress and Cultural Centre.

James Robins, an award-winning journalist and historian, researching the connections between Australia, New Zealand and 1915, wrote a piece for Agos readers on New Zealand's current political climate.

When I asked Jasem Mahmudyan whether he had been to Iraq to visit the Yazidi holly sites in Lalesh, he answered in negative. The tragic events in Sinjar had shaken the entire Yazidi community, and some families had found temporary refuge in Armenia, but they had eventually continued to European destinations. From the village of Alakyaz, Iraq seemed very far away indeed.