Armenian Catholicos Karekin Investigated
By Cihan News Agency
Published: Thursday, June 29, 2006
zaman.com
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An investigation has been launched by the Istanbul Chief Public
Prosecution Office into the world leader of the Armenian Apostolic
Church, Catholicos Karekin II, following claims that he ‘denigrated
Turkishness’ in remarks made during his recent visit to Istanbul. A
complaint was lodged at the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecution Office
by both Recep Akkus and the strongly-nationalist Turkish Lawyers
Union. The Istanbul Prosecution Office has opened an investigation
into the matter. Catholicos Karekin-II stated last Sunday evening at
a press conference at the Turkish Armenian Patriarchate in the Kumkapi
quarter in Istanbul that Turkey must recognize the Armenian claims of
genocide during the final years of the Ottoman Empire. In his remarks
Sunday, the Armenian Catholicos expressed his wishes for more progress
in Turkish-Armenian relations. Remarking that the issue of genocide
had been debated by researchers for 90 years, Karekin-II said: "For
our people it is not a subject for research. It is an event that took
place and it must be recognized." He said that the genocide issue was
one of the problems that had to be solved for the normalization of
relations between the two countries. Armenian Catholicos Karekin
arrived in Istanbul on Tuesday of last week as the guest of Turkey’s
Armenian Patriarchate Mesrob II and the Fener Greek Orthodox
Partriarchate Bartholomeos. He has since left Turkey for Armenia. The
fate of Armenians under the Ottoman Empire during WWI and after is
still a sensitive issue in Turkey. Armenians claim that 1.5 million
Armenians living under the Ottoman Empire were killed as part of an
intentional and systematic genocide campaign during World War I.
Turkey denies the allegations that 200,000 Armenians died during
forced migrations due to cold weather and bad transportation
conditions. For further information please visit