Religion News Service
October 11, 2007 Thursday 4:54 PM EDT

Armenian church leader supports `genocide’ resolution

By MRINALINI REDDY

As Congress considers legislation that brands the killings of 1.5
million Armenians in 1915 "genocide," the patriarch of the worldwide
Armenian Church said Turkey’s resistance is "unacceptable."

His Holiness Karekin II, the spiritual leader of 7 million Armenian
Christians, stopped in Washington during a month-long U.S. tour and
weighed in on a hot-button diplomatic fracas that is roiling the
nation’s capital.

At issue is the massacre of Armenians on Turkish soil in the last
days of the Ottoman Empire. On Wednesday (Oct. 10), the House Foreign
Relations Committee passed a resolution that called the deaths a
"genocide."

President Bush issued a stern rebuke, saying the bill could threaten
relations with Turkey, a strategic ally and moderate Islamic nation
in the war on terrorism.

Turkish President Abdullah Gul has expressed discontent and recalled
Turkey’s ambassador as a sign of protest.

Karekin, speaking Thursday (Oct. 11) on the steps of the Jefferson
Memorial in a ceremony to mark religious freedom, said, "We believe
that similar threats are unacceptable and we would desire a more
positive approach by Turkey itself."

Just hours before the House committee approved the non-binding
resolution on Wednesday, Karekin met with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and
offered the opening prayer in the House chamber. "With the solemn
burden of history, we remember the victims of the genocide of the
Armenians, the consequences of which are still felt by the entire
world in new manifestations of genocide," he prayed.

Edward Alexander, a former diplomat and parishioner at St. Mary
Armenian Church here, joined Karekin on his visit with Pelosi and at
the Jefferson Memorial. He said he lost members of his extended
family in the massacre.

While the resolution may appear a symbolic gesture, it means a great
deal to the Armenian community, he said. "This is the greatest
country in the world," said Alexander. "It’s a country of laws, deep
democracy and justice."

The Armenian Church holds a unique place outside of Catholicism,
Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism. Armenia was the first country to
proclaim Christianity the official state religion, in 301 A.D.,
preceding Roman Emperor Constantine by 12 years.

There are about 1 million Armenian Christians in three dioceses in
the U.S. and Canada. The 1915 massacre fueled a wave of refugees to
American shores, which helped build the U.S. church into the largest
and most prosperous of the Armenian diaspora.

Karekin holds a position similar to the pope, and is the church’s
132nd catholicos, or supreme partiarch.