Pope calls for 'guarantees' after Brexit for good of UK, continent

By Philip Pullella and Margarita Antidze YEREVAN (Reuters) - Pope Francis said on Friday Britain's vote to leave the European Union must be followed by "guarantees" for the good of both Britons and countries on the continent. Francis, who was starting a weekend visit to Armenia, normally takes questions from journalists only on the return flight of his trips but made an exception this time, clearly eager to speak about the stunning Brexit referendum. Speaking shortly after leaving Rome for the Armenian capital Yerevan, Francis suggested the referendum result - 52 to 48 percent in favor of leaving the EU - had to be respected because it embodied the popular will. "It was the will expressed by the people and this requires a great responsibility on the part of all of us to guarantee the good of the people of the United Kingdom, as well as the good and co-existence of the European continent," he said. "This is what I expect," he said, adding that he had been told the definitive result when he boarded the plane in Rome. The Vatican has always strongly supported the European Union. Francis, the first pope from Latin America, also expressed satisfaction at a ceasefire agreement between Colombia's government and FARC guerrillas brokered by Cuba. He said the accord should be made "ironclad so that there will be no going back to a state of war". In Armenia, which in the 4th century became the first nation to adapt Christianity as a state religion, Francis had been expected to avoid the word "genocide" so as not to reignite a dispute with Turkey sparked last year when he used it to describe the 1915 mass killings of some 1.5 million Armenians. But in a speech on Friday night to Armenian President Serzh Sarksyan, his cabinet and diplomats, Francis at first used the Armenian term 'Metz Yeghern' (the great evil). He then added to his prepared text "that genocide" to refer to "the first of the deplorable series of catastrophes of the past century". There was no immediate reaction from Turkey, which last year recalled its ambassador to the Vatican after the pope used the "genocide" term. The envoy was kept away for 10 months. His office in Rome declined to comment on Friday. Turkey accepts that many Christian Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire were killed in clashes with Ottoman forces during World War One, but it contests the figures and denies that the killings were systematically orchestrated and constitute a genocide. It also says many Muslim Turks perished at that time. The Armenian Apostolic Church, whose leader is known as the "Catholicos", split from Rome over a theological dispute in the fifth century and is part of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. It is seen as the custodian of Armenian national identity. (Editing by Mark Heinrich)