Pope Leo XIV prays at Armenian cathedral in Istanbul as Turkey and Armenia attempt reconciliation

ISTANBUL (AP) — Pope Leo XIV held prayers at the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral in Istanbul on Sunday in a gesture of support for Christian unity and Christian minorities in Turkey.

Beyond its ecumenical symbolism, the visit signals quiet support of ongoing efforts to heal century-old wounds between Turkey and Armenia, long scarred by mass killings and decades of mistrust, observers note.

An estimated 1.5 million Armenians died in massacres, deportations and forced marches that began in 1915 in Ottoman Turkey. Historians widely view the event as genocide.

Turkey denies the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest. It has lobbied to prevent countries from officially recognizing the massacres as genocide.

Pope Francis did not visit any Armenian sites during his visit to Turkey in 2014, but on his way to the airport before departing, he made an unscripted stop at a hospital where the ailing Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II was being treated.

A year later, Francis drew Ankara's ire by referring to the slaughter of Armenians during the Ottoman era as “the first genocide of the 20th century.” He later visited Armenia, where he again used the term genocide.

Leo has steered clear of controversy during his first six months as pope and on Sunday only made a subtle reference to the sufferings.

“This visit provides me with the opportunity to thank God for the courageous Christian witness of the Armenian people throughout history, often amid tragic circumstances,” he said.

Leo's visit comes as Turkey and Armenia appear to be moving closer toward a normalization of their ties and the pontiff's visit is likely to lend support to those efforts, said Richard Giragosian, the founding director of the Regional Studies Center based in Yerevan, Armenia.

“More than just the symbolic importance of bringing the Vatican closer to the Armenian Church in terms of the eastern religion outreach, (the visit) is also, in some ways, promoting Armenia-Turkish normalization,” Giragosian said.

Leo arrived in Turkey on Thursday on his first foreign visit to mark the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, now the town of Iznik, where the united Christian Church agreed on a shared creed of faith. He was then scheduled to continue to Lebanon.

Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic ties and their border has remained closed since the 1990s. In 2021, the countries agreed to work toward normalization, appointing special envoys to explore steps toward reconciliation and reopening the frontier.

Those talks have progressed in parallel with efforts to ease tensions between Armenia and Azerbaijan, a close Turkish ally. Turkey supported Azerbaijan during its 2020 conflict with Armenia for control of the Karabakh region, known internationally as Nagorno-Karabakh, a conflict that had lasted nearly four decades.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan visited Turkey in June for talks with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He later told a group of Turkish journalists in Yerevan that pursuing international recognition of the genocide is not among his government’s priorities, while emphasizing the genocide is an “indisputable fact” for Armenians.

Leo was not expected to press for the formal recognition of genocide.

“That’s not part of the normalization engagement. So it’s pretty clear that he will avoid either the word or the reference,” Giragosian said.

“It is not important today to (say) genocide or not,” said Mardik Evadian, an Armenian businessman attending the service. "We are living in this country and we are happy to live here.”

Leo and Istanbul-based Patriarch Sahak II Mashalian processed into the Holy Mother of God Patriarchal Church in a cloud of incense as a male choir chanted for a service steeped in the church’s traditions, with some 500 Armenian worshipers in attendance.

The service was followed by a brief dedication ceremony, where Leo unveiled a marble inscription in his honor.

Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI all visited the Armenian Apostolic Cathedral during their respective visits to Istanbul.

“The Papacy has long served as a moral compass, defending the dignity of every human being, championing peace, and giving voice to those who have none,” Sahak said. “The Armenian people do not forget the Popes who raised their voice in our times of suffering, who stood with Christian communities in danger, and who upheld truth when the world hesitated.”

Leo's visit is one of several encounters in Turkey and Lebanon with the Armenian Christian faithful in a recognition of its deep roots in the region, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.

“Clearly, the Armenian presence in Istanbul is an ancient one, a deeply rooted presence, a presence that is also evident in all the meetings held over the various days,” he told reporters.

In Armenia, Armen Arshakyan, 65, said he didn't believe the pope’s visit would alter Turkey’s policies, but was nevertheless a positive step that honors Armenians.

“It honors us and reminds the world about Armenians, who are currently in a rather difficult situation,” he said.

Another Yerevan resident, 31-year-old Maria Petrosyan, said Leo’s visit to the Armenian church “cannot be of great global importance” but said she values the pontiff maintaining dialogue with different churches.

The visit to the Armenian Cathedral in Istanbul comes during ongoing strain in the Caucasus, including between Pashinyan and the Armenian Apostolic Church. The tensions have simmered since April 2024, when thousands of protesters led by prominent clerics demanded Pashinyan’s ouster for his efforts to normalize ties with Azerbaijan.

In response, Armenian authorities arrested a number of clerics, accusing them of calling for an overthrow of the government and coercing people into taking part in rallies. Archbishop Mikael Ajapahyan, who was arrested in June, was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of calling for a government overthrow.

Earlier this year, the Vatican and Azerbaijan signed a cooperation agreement on interfaith dialogue, which upset some Armenians. Bruni declined to comment on recent Armenian complaints about the Vatican’s increasingly close relations with Azerbaijan.

The agreement followed a conference at a Pontifical university in April, co-organized by the Azerbaijani government, that outraged Armenian Christian and civic groups, which accused Azerbaijan of rewriting history about the Armenian presence in the region.

The Vatican, meanwhile, is engaged in “behind-the-scenes" diplomacy to help with the release of Armenian prisoners and detainees held in Azerbaijan, Giragosian said. Armenian officials and media have reported 23 Armenian prisoners are being held in Baku.

Fraser reported from Ankara. Associated Press writers Nicole Winfield and Patricia Thomas in Istanbul, Dasha Litvinova and Yuras Kamanau in Tallinn, Estonia, Narek Aleksanyan in Yerevan, Armenia, and Ali Sharafeddine in Beirut contributed to this report.

A Lebanese woman of Armenian descent prays by human remains of people killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I in 1915, inside the Armenian Patriarchate in Antelias, north of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Christian worshippers take part in Sunday Mass at the Armenian Patriarchate in Antelias, north of Beirut, Lebanon, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

Armenian worshippers pray during Sunday Mass at the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Turkey. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Armenian worshippers pray during Sunday Mass at the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Turkey. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Archbishop Sahak II Mashalian, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, leads Sunday Mass at the Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church in Istanbul, Turkey, Sunday, Nov. 23, 2025, ahead of the visit of Pope Leo XIV to Turkey. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — New DNA testing has definitively linked the unsolved death of a Utah teenager in 1974 to the infamous serial killer Ted Bundy, the local sheriff’s office said Wednesday.

Laura Ann Aime, 17, went missing Halloween night 51 years ago after she left a party alone to go to a convenience store. About a month later, her body was found on the side of a highway in American Fork Canyon. She was bound, beaten and without clothing. Authorities said she had likely been kept alive for several days after her abduction.

Investigators long suspected that Bundy was responsible — police said he verbally acknowledged his culpability before his execution in Florida in 1989 — but the case remained open until they could be certain.

“It's really quite amazing that people are even still interested in Laura's case,” her sister, Michelle Impala, said at a news conference Wednesday. “Know I speak for my family when I thank you, and thank you media, too, for even caring.”

Bundy was one of the nation’s most prolific serial killers, with at least 30 women and girls’ deaths linked to him in several states in the 1970s. His murders — which occurred in sorority houses, parks and elsewhere — set the nation on edge. Bundy’s arrest drew widespread fascination, in part because many considered him to be charming and handsome.

Investigators had carefully preserved the evidence from Aime’s case, and forensic analysts were able to identify portions that seemed most likely to have usable DNA samples, Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Beau Mason said.

The state crime lab got new technology in 2023 that allows investigators to extract DNA from samples even if they are small, degraded from age or contain DNA from multiple people, he said. That technology allowed them to identify a single male DNA profile, which they submitted to a national law enforcement database.

Bundy’s DNA was a match, Mason said.

That profile can now be used by other law enforcement agencies who have long suspected Bundy of additional unsolved killings, he said, adding that more families could get similar closure.

“Laura Aime is the quintessential daughter of Utah County,” Sgt. Mike Reynolds said. “We felt the pain the family feels when she was taken. We felt the pain that you felt this whole entire time, and we’ve had the desire to deliver to you some type of healing.”

Impala was only 12 when her older sister died. Even with a five-year age gap, she said they were very close and did everything together. They shared a bedroom on the family's farm in Fairview, Utah, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) southeast of Provo.

“I'm a little kid just following her around, but we had a lot in common," Impala said.

Impala reminisced about about riding horses with her sister and watching Aime feed her horse licorice nibs.

“When she died, he would not eat those anymore,” she said.

It’s not known when Bundy first began his attacks, but by 1974, young women — many of them college students — began disappearing in Washington state. Authorities were still investigating those cases when Bundy moved to Salt Lake City and began killing people in Utah, Idaho and Colorado.

At the time of Aime’s killing, Bundy was studying law at the University of Utah.

In August 1975, he was arrested for the first time in connection with the attacks. Police pulled him over and found incriminating items in his vehicle including rope, handcuffs and a ski mask.

He was found guilty the following year of kidnapping and assaulting a teen in Utah who had managed to get away. Bundy was sentenced to 15 years in prison for that crime, and while imprisoned he was charged in connection with the earlier death of a nursing student.

He was brought to Aspen, Colorado, for a hearing in that case in 1977, and he escaped custody by climbing out a second-story courthouse window when he was left alone for a time. He was caught after about a week, but escaped again six months later by breaking through the ceiling of a jail.

Bundy fled across the country, eventually making his way to Tallahassee, Florida. On Jan. 15, 1977, he entered the Chi Omega sorority house at Florida State University, bludgeoning two women to death with a large branch and leaving two more badly injured. He then went to another house nearby, badly injuring another woman.

Less than a month later, he abducted, sexually assaulted and killed a 12-year-old girl in Lake City, Florida. Kimberly Leach was believed to be his last victim before he was arrested again and executed years later.

Boone reported from Boise, Idaho.

Brent Bullock, center left, who led investigations at the Utah County Attorney's Office around the time of Laura Ann Aime's murder, shakes hands with Michelle Impala, Aime's younger sister, after a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026, announcing definitive evidence linking Ted Bundy to Aime's murder. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

Michelle Impala, right, sister of Laura Ann Aime, speaks, joined by Utah County Sheriff Mike Smith, during a news conference announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Aime's murder, at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

Utah County Sheriff's Deputy Jake Hall, lead detective on the case, looks to other family members as he hugs Tommi Aime, youngest sister of Laura Ann Aime, after announcing that definitive evidence has linked Ted Bundy to Laura's murder at a news conference at the Utah County Sheriff's Office, in Spanish Fork, Utah, Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (Isaac Hale/The Deseret News via AP)

FILE - Mourners say goodbye to Kimberly Leach at her funeral, April 13, 1978, in Lake City, Fla. (AP Photo, File)

FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy attends the second day of jury selection in his murder trial, June 27, 1979, in Miami, Fla. (AP Photo,File)

FILE - Accused murderer Ted Bundy leans back in his chair as trial judge Edward Cowart speaks, in Tallahassee, Fla., April 26, 1979. (AP Photo/Mark Foley, File)