ARCHBISHOP MUTAFIAN IN MISCHIEF

Azg/arm
5 March 05

Ever since exterminating 1.5 million Armenians and depopulating
historic Armenia, successive regimes in Turkey have been hard at work,
in an obsessive determination to wipe out all traces of Armenian
heritage in our ancestral land.

However, since Ataturk’s Europeanization, the traditional Turkish
scimitar has been replaced by more sophisticated methods with the very
same ultimate goal to drive the original inhabitants of the land into
oblivion.

Recognizing fully the role of the Armenian Church in preserving the
Armenian culture and identity, the Turks have turned it into a prime
target of destruction. Thousands of houses of worship have been
reduced to ruins. Additionally, the Turks have resorted to every ruse,
any kind of Byzantine law to emasculate the remaining Armenian
community in Istanbul, especially decapitating its spiritual
leadership.

Contrary to Lausanne Treaty (1923) provisions, the Turkish government
has shut down the Holy Cross Armenian Seminary, the only center where
young generations of clergy could be trained. When Armenians resorted
to other creative means to replenish the dwindling pool clergymen by
emoting aspiring clergymen at the Jerusalem Seminary, the Turkish
government acted swiftly to ban that route as wail, accusing Armenians
of training terrorists in that seminary. One of those returning
seminarians, Father Manuel Yergatian, ended up in jail with ludicrous
accusations and he suffered most of his 14 years verdict in the
Turkish dungeons.

While denying all venues to train young clergy, the Turkish government
has devised another trap: thus the Turkish law prohibits anyone from
being elected as the Armenian Patriarch who is not born in Turkey.
These restrictions severely curtail the number of potential
candidates, only to eliminate all the candidates in a matter of
several years.

Under these devilish Turkish schemes, clergymen of dubious reputation
will ascend the Patriarchal throne default. The current Patriarch,
Archbishop Mesrob Mutafian, is the product of that default.

His predecessors, Archbishop Karekin Khachadourian, Archbishop Shnork
Kalousdian, and even Archbishop Kazanjian, have served the
Patriarchate with extreme prudence, cognizant of the limitations and
restrictions imposed by the Turkish government. Thanks to their
prudence, wisdom and inspiring personalities, the great traditions of
the Istanbul Armenian community have been preserved, the creative
impulse of the intellectual life has remained productive, and the
institutions have survived.

The emergence of Archbishop Mutafian has altered the scene
dramatically. Traditionally united, the Istanbul Armenian community
has been severely divided. He has bullied intellectuals, journalists
and benefactors by his unorthodox behavior; however, thanks to the
wisdom of the injured parties not to react, eccentric behavior of this
young clergyman continues its damage.

Since Archbishop Mutafian was easily elected to the Patriarchal
throne, with Turkish government crutches, he was intoxicated with his
instant success and he used the Patriarchal throne as a launching pad
to try his luck as the Supreme head of the Armenian Church – where he
discovered that Turkish tentacles were not long enough to help him in
his outlandish design. He was frustrated and he turned against the
Holy See of Etchmiadzin; used every opportunity to demonstrate his
disrespect and he broke away from the traditional hierarchal
relations, which the former Patriarchs had established and cherished
sacredly.

All his predecessors had been coerced by the Turkish government to get
involved politically to promote its dubious agenda to the detriment of
the Armenian cause, but they had wisely shied away from engaging in
any such adventure. Yet Archbishop Mutafian gleefully engaged in that
adventure at the first advance of the Turkish authorities. He allowed
himself to be used as a political tool when he took a tour of Europe
last year to promote Turkey’s admission into the European Union, while
the world Armenian political leadership was opposing the move
vehemently.

Upon his return to Istanbul he believed that he had earned Brownie
points with the Turkish government. When he approached the Turkish
authorities with problems plaguing the Armenian community, he
discovered that nothing had been changed, and that the same
authorities continued their discrimination policies. They continued
usurping community assets and controlling the Armenian schools to
eradicate any ethnic tradition left there.

As the Turkish heavy hand was relentlessly working to disrupt
community life, instead of complaining to the International Court, or
declaring a hunger strike at UN Headquarters to draw attention to the
plight of the Armenian community, he dared to show up at the Turkish
TV to say what the Turks waited to hear and what they wanted the world
to hear – that Armenian community had been living freely and
peacefully and that no other Armenians from abroad had to meddle im
their affairs.

When the European Union representatives visited Turkey to contact the
community leaders, Greeks, Kurds and Jews courageously cited their
grievances, yet Archbishop Mutafian disappeared on a Greek island.

During President Bush’s visit he spoke of humanitarian values and
complained about Abu Ghreib Prison in Iraq, instead of complaining
about Midnight Express style Turkish prisons.

As the world Armenian community struggles for the recognition of the
Armenian Genocide, Archbishop Mutafian plays the Turkish tunes: that
history has to be left to the historians, as if there was anything
left to be said about the genocide.

The Armenian Mirror Spectator