عربي English Türkçe اردو فارسى
Logo
Latest News
World

Pope Says Ukraine War Fueled Not Just by ‘Russian Empire’

Pope Francis smiles at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP)
Pope Francis smiles at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP)
TT
TT

Pope Says Ukraine War Fueled Not Just by ‘Russian Empire’

Pope Francis smiles at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP)
Pope Francis smiles at the end of his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, March 8, 2023. (AP)

The war in Ukraine is driven by the interests of several "empires" and not just of Russia's, Pope Francis said in an interview published on Friday.

Francis said the conflict was fueled by "imperial interests, not just of the Russian empire, but of empires from elsewhere".

He expressed a readiness to talk to Russian President Vladimir Putin to call for peace.

The pontiff was speaking to Italian Swiss television RSI, in an interview due to be broadcast on Sunday. Extracts were published on Friday by Italian dailies La Repubblica, La Stampa and Corriere della Sera.

Francis, who is 86 and marks the 10th anniversary of his election on March 13, also said he would resign if he got too tired and lost the capacity to govern the Roman Catholic Church.

Last month, he had said that papal resignations should happen in only exceptional circumstances.

His predecessor Benedict XVI, who died on Dec. 31 aged 95, became the first pontiff to resign in about 600 years when he stepped down in 2013.

Asked what would lead him to make the same decision to quit, Francis said: "A tiredness that doesn't make you see things clearly. A lack of clarity, of knowing how to evaluate situations".

Francis said he was "a bit ashamed" to use a wheelchair due to a knee ailment.

"I am old. I have less physical resistance, the knee (problem) was a physical humiliation, even if the recovery is going well now," he said.

Most Viewed

 
 
World

European Court Rules Against Greece over Migrant’s Illegal Deportation

FILE - Migrants walk to enter Greece from Türkiye by crossing the Maritsa river (Evros river in Greek) near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Türkiye, March 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
FILE - Migrants walk to enter Greece from Türkiye by crossing the Maritsa river (Evros river in Greek) near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Türkiye, March 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
TT
TT

European Court Rules Against Greece over Migrant’s Illegal Deportation

FILE - Migrants walk to enter Greece from Türkiye by crossing the Maritsa river (Evros river in Greek) near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Türkiye, March 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)
FILE - Migrants walk to enter Greece from Türkiye by crossing the Maritsa river (Evros river in Greek) near the Pazarkule border gate in Edirne, Türkiye, March 1, 2020. (AP Photo/Emrah Gurel, File)

The European Court of Human Rights, in a landmark ruling Tuesday, found that Greece had illegally deported a woman back to neighboring Türkiye and described the use of summary expulsions or “pushbacks” as systematic.
The decision at the court in Strasbourg, France could impact how Europe handles migrants at its borders, at a time when Greece and several European Union member states are seeking tougher immigration controls, The Associated Press reported.
A Turkish woman — identified only by her initials A.R.E. — was awarded damages of 20,000 euros ($21,000) after the court ruled that she had been improperly expelled in 2019 after crossing the Greek-Turkish border, having been presented no opportunity to make an asylum claim.
“The court considered that there were strong indications to suggest that there had existed, at the time of the events alleged, a systematic practice of ‘pushbacks’ of third-country nationals by the Greek authorities, from the Evros region (on the Greek border) to Türkiye,” the decision said.
Citing a lack of evidence, the court rejected a second claim made by an Afghan man, who said he had been illegally returned to Türkiye from the Greek island of Samos in 2020 when he was 15.
Greek government representatives at the hearings had denied the allegations, challenging the authenticity of the evidence presented and arguing that Greece's border policies comply with international law.
The UN refugee agency has urged Greece to more thoroughly investigate multiple pushback allegations, while several major human rights groups have described the alleged irregular deportations as a systematic practice.
Greece’s National Transparency Authority, a publicly-funded corruption watchdog, said that it found no evidence to support the pushback allegations following a four-month investigation in 2022.
The European Court of Human Rights is an international court based in Strasbourg, France, that adjudicates human rights violations by 46 member states of the Council of Europe, a body older than the European Union and its predecessor, the European Economic Community.