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Prime Minister Hovik Abrahamyan received Kardashian and her
family in the capital Yerevan and praised their contribution to
"international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian
genocide," his press service said.
Kardashian, her rapper husband Kanye West, their child North
West and her sister Khloe were greeted by hundreds of fans when
they arrived in the former Soviet republic on Wednesday night.
"Armenia we are here!!!!! We are so grateful to be here & start
this journey of a lifetime! Thank you to everyone who greeted
us!" Kardashian, who was followed by crowds as she toured
Yerevan on Thursday, wrote on her Instagram account.
The star of "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" is on her first
visit to the country, which her ancestors left for the United
States.
She made no public mention of the mass killings in World War One
which will be commemorated by Armenia on April 24.
Armenia, some Western historians and some foreign parliaments
refer to the mass killings as genocide.
Muslim Turkey accepts many Christian Armenians died in partisan
fighting beginning in 1915, but it denies that up to 1.5 million
were killed and that it amounted to genocide.
Speaking at an Armenian Catholic church in Rome before a planned
commemoration at the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis said it was
time for countries to seek reconciliation over what he called
the "systematic annihilation" of 100 years ago.
"We invoke Divine Mercy to help us all, for love of truth and
justice, to heal every wound and bring about concrete gestures
of reconciliation and peace between nations that still have not
been able to reach a reasonable consensus on the interpretation
of these sad events," the pope said.
(This version of the story includes the meeting with prime
minister)
(Additional reporting by Steve Scherer in Rome, Writing by
Timothy Heritage; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
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