HEAD OF ARMENIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH MEETS ECUMENICAL PATRIARCH BARTHOLOMEW IN ISTANBUL

AP Worldstream
Jun 21, 2006

The head of the Armenian Orthodox Church met with Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew I on Wednesday as police tightened security to protect
the visiting leader from Turkish protesters.

Karekin II has angered Turks by saying the country committed genocide
against Armenians around the time of World War I, an allegation
vehemently denied by Turkey.

Dozens of riot police guarded Karekin, whose official title is
Catholicos of All Armenians, after a group of nationalists protested
his arrival Tuesday night for a weeklong visit to the Armenian
community in Turkey.

He was accompanied by police out of the airport through a separate
entrance, media reports said Wednesday.

Turkey, which has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, denies that
Turks committed genocide, saying Armenians who lived under the Ottoman
Empire were killed in internal fighting among ethnic groups as the
empire collapsed.

Armenia prides itself on being the first nation in the world to
officially adopt Christianity, while Turkey is 99 percent Muslim.

Bartholomew is the spiritual leader of some 250 million Orthodox
Christians worldwide.