Pope looking at Armenia trip in June

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, stressed that the trip was still in its planning stages and that no itinerary had been set. But he said that the dates under study were in the second half of June.

Francis sparked a diplomatic incident with Turkey last year when he celebrated an Armenian-rite Mass marking the 100th anniversary of the slaughter and termed it the "first genocide of the 20th Century", AP notes.

Mediamax recalls that Pope John Paul II visited Armenia in 2001, when the country was celebrating the 1700 anniversary of adopting Christianity as a state religion.