KAREKIN REFUSES TO ATTEND OPENING OF AKHTAMAR ‘MUSEUM’
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
March 28 2007
The head of the Armenian Orthodox Church, Karekin II, has refused to
attend a reopening ceremony of a restored Armenian church in eastern
Anatolia because the church will operate as a museum but not as
a church.
The Armenian Orthodox Church released a written statement yesterday
and brought to mind that the invitation for the ceremony on March
29 [tomorrow] for the reopening of the ancient Akhtamar Church
was extended by Van Governor Mehmet Niyazi Tanýlýr to Karekin
II, whose official title is Catholicos of All Armenians, via the
Armenian Foreign Ministry. Karekin II will not participate in the
ceremonies after having considered that "the Holy Cross Armenian
Church, recently renovated by the Turkish authorities, will not
operate as a church under the spiritual authority of the Armenian
Patriarchate of Constantinople and instead will be designated as a
museum, and that the opening ceremonies will be conducted solely with
a secular program and not in accord with the canonical rites of the
Holy Apostolic Armenian Church," the brief statement said.
"In this new century, when there is a universal desire for mutual
understanding and collaboration between peoples, as well as in the
context of dialogue between religions and cultures, this action of the
Turkish authorities against the pious Christian beliefs and emotions
of the Armenian people cannot be perceived as a positive step on the
path of bringing the two nations closer," the statement added. Karekin
II, who had paid a week-long visit to the Armenian community in Turkey
last year in June, in the past angered Turks by saying their ancestors
committed genocide against Armenians around the time of World War I,
an allegation vehemently denied by Turkey.
Turkey, which has no diplomatic relations with Armenia, denies that
Turks committed genocide, saying Armenians who lived in the Ottoman
Empire were killed in internal fighting among ethnic groups as the
empire collapsed.
–Boundary_(ID_1qnN2LhfPopHxGaKO3pWXg) —
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
