ARCHBISHOP MUTAFIAN AND COHORTS DISTRAUGHT
Azg/arm
18 March 05
When certain traditional values are trampled and hierarchical order is
under assault, it is symptomatic that the fabric of a given society
has a breakdown. Unfortunately, a young clergyman on the historical
throne of the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul has signaled this
deterioration, which threatens to infect the Diaspora with the help
and collusion of some cohorts.
For a long time the Diaspora Armenians had been watching the
activities of Archbishop Mutafian with deep concern, because those
activities were, at best, characterized with eccentricity. Yet as long
as he had confined his activities to his flock, no one would dare to
criticize the young clergyman, especially in view of the intellectual
elite still active in the community and a leadership cherishing
traditional values and watching unorthodox tendencies to be checked.
Diaspora is particularly cognizant of the conditions that Turkish
authorities have created to suffocate and disrupt Armenian community
life in Turkey.
For that reason we always considered that meddling in the affairs of
Istanbul Armenian community life from abroad would hamper an already
difficult mission of the leadership in that community.
All these considerations intended to help that leadership to perform
its function in daunting circumstances.
Archbishop Mutafian disregarded all those sensitive relations and all
of a sudden decided to export his eccentricities to other communities
with unchecked imperial ambitions. As if the Armenian Church did not
have enough problems with the division initiated by Antelias,
Archbishop Mutafian came out with his own brand of division, trying to
undermine the authority of his Holiness Catholicos Karekin II, supreme
spiritual leader of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Without getting
into details, it suffices to mention his solidarity with the former
Primate of Moscow who had rebelled against the Catholicos. Fortunately
the former Primate, Ghazaros Gureghian, was defrocked and the legal
challenge was resolved in favor of Holy Etchmiadzin.
That eliminated one of Archbishop Mutafian’s allies in the church. But
he would not rest nor respect the hierarchy of the Armenian Church. He
seized another opportunity to vent his revolt against Etchmiadzin,
when the Catholicos awarded an Istanbul Armenian couple with a medal
for their contribution to the Church. Archbishop Mutafian
disgracefully returned Vehapar’s encyclical requesting a “correction”;
that irrational gesture had two main intentions: a) to demonstrate his
disrespect to the spiritual head of the church, b) to request that a
specific clause be added to the encyclical indicating that the
benefactors were being awarded only for their contributions to
Armenia. That, of course, intended to raise a red flag for Turkish
authorities that Armenians in Istanbul were earning the money in
Turkey and investing it in Armenia, knowing full well the
interpretation of this transaction in Turkish conspiratorial mind.
Certainly, the same disrespectful mentality had prompted Archbishop
Mutafian to sue the AGBU, knowing full well that the AGBU leadership
is very supportive of Mother See at Etchmiadzin.
It is Archbishop Mutafian’s last worry to see an Armenian school (i.e.
Melkonian) closed down in the Diaspora, when he has been complaining
about his own turf, the Turkish-Armenian community, for having too
many schools.
The “Opinion Piece” of the ADL, which also appeared on the editorial
page of the Mirror-Spectator, intended to criticize the archbishop for
suing a century-old venerable organization, and not necessarily
discuss the closure of Melkonian Educational Institution.
It looks like our criticism has also irritated some of the
archbishop’s cohorts. It would have been a shame to keep silent in
front of a disgraceful act. Archbishop Mutafian has issued a rebuttal
on March 5, 2005, under the signature of Istanbul Armenian
Patriarchate.
The official opinion of any organization reflects the collective
thinking of its leadership. Here again, in the rebuttal, Archbishop
Mutafian singles out the name of one of the ADL chairmen to point out
to the Turkish authorities who their true enemy is.
Although his Beatitude claims that he does not wish to dignify our
criticism with an answer, he answers anyway, by contradicting himself
and characterizes the ADL ideology as “bankrupt”. The ADL ideology is
based on the belief in the democratic system, on the recognition of
the Armenian Genocide and the liberation of historic Armenian
homeland. These ideals can only be considered “bankrupt” for people
living under the fearful Turkish military rule.
The good Archbishop has found an ardent defender in Ms. Arpi Totoyan
of Paris, who has even pre-empted him by signing an article in the
daily Haratch, issue of March 4. This young writer, who cherishes
tutoring manners to everybody in the Armenian life – sometimes
overtopping her bounds – needs to learn one important thing: to
understand correctly the texts that she reads.
Indeed, she claims to have found a mistake in our statement that Sourp
Khach Seminary does not exist. And she insists that Sourp Khach exists
as a high school educating many generations for a half a century. For
all practical purposes, it does not exist, because it was founded to
educate clergy, but the Turkish authorities banned its mission,
allowing it to exist as a secondary school. It does not take a rocket
scientist to understand the true issue in this case.
In her fiery defense, Ms. Totoyan states that Archbishop Mesrob does
not need any defense (but she does anyway) and deviating from the main
issue, states that similar opinion pieces cannot absolve the AGBU from
closing the Melkonian, while our point was to take issue with his
Beatitude for suing an Armenian organization and not necessarily
debate the closure of Melkonian, which was already debated ad nauseam
in our press.
Should this lawsuit continue, a fair verdict would be rendered,
because the US courts don’t operate like Turkish courts. Yet whatever
the verdict, there will be no winners in this case. We will all be
embarrassed as Armenians, especially in this year when we plan to
commemorate the 90th anniversary of the Genocide.
We may not rule out the possibility that the main motive behind this
lawsuit was to dampen the impact of the commemoration. The onus of
this deplorable campaign rests on Archbishop Mutafian and his cohorts
for this uncalled for provocation.
The outcome will only please the Turks, who may already be watching
with great amusement.
Office of the ADL Central Press Committee