SHOW OF ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS IN MEMORY OF REPRESSED CLERGYMEN OPENS AT NAA
YEREVAN, JUNE 16, NOYAN TAPAN. A show of archival documents, “I am
Alive and You will be”, dedicated to the memory of the clergymen
repressed from the 1920s to the 1950s opened at the National Archives
of Armenia (NAA) on June 16. The show was organized jointly by the
Archives of the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin and the NAA. The show
presents over 150 documenst kept at NAA, including the personal
files of the repressed clergymen, as well as the letters written
by the Armenian Catholicoses of that time to the Soviev authorities
demanding that the violence and persecutions unleashed against the
Armenian Church be stopped. Recalling that period, Chief Priest Eghishe
Sarsgsian, an inspector of the Gevorgian Seminary of Echmiadzin,
noted that about 200 Armenian priests died during the Stalin regime,
including Bishop Artak Smbatian, Archimandrite Vrtanes Hakobian,
Bishop Aristakes Zuloyan, Archbishop Sahak Ter-Hovhannisian and others
who photos are featured at the show. Priest Astghik Karapetian,
the director of the Archives of the Mother See, said that “this
joint initiative of the NAA and the Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin is
definitely demand for justice and a spiritual duty since, as Catholicos
of All Armenians Vazgen I wrote years ago, “it would be unfair to bury
in oblivion the sufferings and destruction inflicted to the Armenian
Apostolic Church in those cruel times.” The vocal quintet “Luys”
(“Light”) performed spiritual works at the opening ceremony. The show
will last until late June.