‘ARMENIAN COMMUNITY OF CONSTANTINOPLE IS DISTRUSTFUL OF THEIR COMPATRIOTS IN ARMENIA’
By Hakob Chakrian

AZG Armenian Daily
24/08/2006

Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople States in a Turkish Paper

It seems that Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Mesrop II Mutafian,
is getting into the habit of ascribing his own opinion to the Armenian
community and making grim conclusions and prognosis in Turkish printed
media. Still in mid-June when Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II
was getting ready for Istanbul visit, he suggested Turkish papers that
"the Armenian community of Constantinople thinks that the Supreme
Patriarch does not know the proper place for his statements," thus
trying to forecast "possible unrest during his visit" and to let the
world know about the Armenian community’s "concern."

Patriarch Mutafian’s gloomy forecast did not though hit the
target. According to Armenian press of Istanbul, the community not
only warmly welcomed His Holiness and enjoyed his presence but also
was surprised at Mesrop Mutafian’s conclusion that "some fears in
the community came true." The Armenian community strongly criticized
Patriarch Mutafian "for casting shadow on the Catholicos’s visit"
and emphasized: "When His Holiness was still in Istanbul, in his
interview with Hurriyet Patriarch Mutafian showed that he can hardly
follow a logic worthy a religious leader."

It was the interview with Sefa Kaplan published on June 28 in Hurriyet
that Patriarch Mutafian provided "clarification" to the Catholicos’s
press conference.

In August 6 issue of Hurriyet answering the question of the same
correspondent, the Patriarch made public his attitude to his
compatriots in Armenia not forgetting to speak for the whole community.

Asked by Kaplan "what kind of relations do you have with your
compatriots in Armenia? Do they turn to you with requests?", Patriarch
Mutafian answers: "Two-three years ago they used to turn to us for
money. Seeing that they were in desperate need we would help them
paying for their ticket to Armenia.

Then we saw that they return to Istanbul from Samsun or Trapizon but do
not return to Armenia. That’s why we decided not to fund anymore. But
the church still remains a meeting place for the latter. On Sundays
Surp Astvatsatsin church is full of Armenians speaking Eastern
Armenian. The Ethiopians and Africa-born Armenians also come. So when
preaching you may think that people do not understand you."

Asked "what’s the education level of those people", the Patriarch says:
"Almost all of them are university graduates but they found no jobs
at home. There are even doctors among them who attend patients at
home but earn more than in Armenia."

Answering a question about the relations between the Turks and
the Armenians of Armenia, Patriarch Mutafian says: "Relations are
rather good. I think if there were exchange programs of students,
intellectuals, artists and media representatives, Turkey-Armenia
relations would improve."

The most exciting in the interview were perhaps the last two
questions. The correspondent asked: "Are there cases when the Armenian
residents turn to you complaining of bad treatment?", to which the
Patriarch answers: "As far as I know, they get along very well,
and there were even marriages with the Turks."

Asked "if the local Armenian community is worried because of the
Armenian residents", the Patriarch says: "Unfortunately, there is
more distrust than worry towards them. The local community is slow
to trust those people for unknown reasons. There is a firm opinion
in the community that they are ‘untrustworthy and do not keep their
word’. This is an inglorious phenomenon."

Firstly, it should be said that not all job seekers in Turkey are
university graduates. The Patriarch simply lies fanning the fires of
those who want to see Armenia ruined. As to the community, if they
really consider their compatriots in Armenia untrustworthy, then it
goes against the Patriarch’s words that the Armenians get along with
the Turks and even marry them.

If Patriarch Mutafian ascribes distrust to the Armenian community,
then he carelessly sticks a label of untrustworthy on the Turks who
trust the Armenian residents to the extent of marrying them. In this
case the Armenian community of Constantinople takes the stance of
distrust to Turks because of its Patriarch’s wishful thinking.

It’s obvious that in order to "get well along with the Armenians"
the Turks have to be at least equally bad, therefore the Patriarch’s
suspicion towards his countryman should refer to Turks as well. We
can only remind him the inscription that Lraber, the patriarchy’s
newspaper, carries: "The Lord examines the righteous, but the wicked
and those who love violence his soul hates."