BETHLEHEM CELEBRATES ARMENIAN CHRISTMAS

Ma’an News Agency
x?ID=255163
Jan 18 2010
Palestine

Bethlehem – Ma’an – Bethlehem celebrated its third and final Christmas
of the season with Palestinian Armenians on Monday, alongside President
Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.

The smallest minority in Palestine, there are less than 400 Armenians
in the West Bank, with most residing in Jerusalem and three families
in Bethlehem.

"We consider this Christmas as the Palestinians’ Christmas," Abbas
told Armenian Patriarch Torkom Manoogian in the small Nativity Church
chapel used by Armenians, "Because we know the Armenians are stranded
all over the world…it is as if they are ‘Palestinianized’ and we
feel connected to your plight," he said.

Abbas joined Bethlehemite Armenians for Christmas lunch in the city.

The Armenian church celebrates Christmas on the same day as the Feast
of the Epiphany according to the eastern calendar.