PRESS RELEASE
Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services
Address: Vagharshapat, Republic of Armenia
Contact: Rev. Fr. Ktrij Devejian
Tel: (374 1) 517 163
Fax: (374 1) 517 301
E-Mail: ktrij@etchmiadzin.am
April 27, 2005

His Holiness Karekin II Blesses Ground for New Chapel at Tsitsernakaberd

On the occasion of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the
addition of a new chapel has been planned for the “Tsitsernakaberd” genocide
memorial complex in Yerevan. On April 23, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme
Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, blessed the soil surrounding a
stone marker at the site of the future chapel.

“A holy chapel is to be erected on the heights of Tsitsernakaberd. Here,
the never-ending prayers of humanity will be offered to heaven in memory of
our martyrs. It is to be built, so that the blessings that radiate from the
chapel will cover the unburied bones of our 1.5 million victims like a cloak
and its roof will become a home for the souls of the innocent victims. Our
people will come as pilgrims to this sacred chapel, and in the presence of
these monuments commemorating the Genocide, will stand under the gaze of
Mount Ararat and confirm our fidelity towards the holy faith of our
ancestors. Here, we shall make an oath, promising to live with the
determination and diligence of keeping their dreams and visions alive.

“Church bells will ring from this hilltop, they will spread out over the
Diaspora throughout the world, as a clarion call urging our children to
continue their righteous and consistent struggle for the recognition and
condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, so that no one will dare to ever
devise an evil program of the extermination of a nation”, noted the Pontiff
of All Armenians.

The chapel will be built by the donations of the entire Armenian nation,
both in the homeland and in dispersion, and will allow Armenians and
non-Armenians who visit the memorial to offer their prayers to heaven. When
the “Tsitsernakaberd” memorial was originally designed and constructed in
the 1960’s, the Soviet authorities would not allow for a chapel to be built
at the site, and this initiative will complete the complex which at present
consists of the eternal flame monument, the “mourning wall”, the genocide
museum (built in 1995), and the memorial grove of trees planted by visiting
heads of state, heads of churches and dignitaries.

Present for the service were Mr. Vartan Oskanian, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Mr. Manouk Topuzian, Chief of Staff/Minister of Government,
Diocesan Primates and members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin. Also
in attendance were high-ranking clergymen from sister churches who had
arrived in Armenia on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian
Genocide: Bishop Mark Yegoryevski of the Russian Orthodox Church
(Patriarchate of Moscow), Archbishop Malatius of the Syrian Orthodox
Church, Archbishop Seraphim of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Bishop Corneliu
of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bishop Ioannis of the Greek Orthodox
Church, Bishop David Tustin of the Church of England, Rev. Jean-Arnold de
Clermont, President of the Conference of European Churches, Dn. Alexander
Vasiutin and Dr. Sergey Govorun (Russian Orthodox Church) and Prof. Sergo
Vastanidze (Georgian Orthodox Church).