PRESS RELEASE
Eastern Prelacy of the Armenian Apost. Church of America and Canada
H.E. Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan
Prelate, Easter Prelacy and Canada
138 East 39th Street
New York, NY 10016
Tel: 212-689-7810
Fax: 212-689-7168
Web:
April 27, 2010
In Memoriam
BISHOP NSHAN TOPOUZIAN
(1966-2010)
Prelate of the Armenian Diocese of Aderbadagan (Iran)
His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, His
Eminence Archbishop Oshagan Choloyan, Prelate of the Eastern United
States, and the Cilician Brotherhood announce with immense sorrow the
untimely passing of the Prelate of the Diocese of Aderbadagan, Bishop
Nshan Topouzian, which took place on Tuesday, April 27, 2010, in
Armenia following a brief illness.
The Extreme Unction and burial services will take place in Tabriz,
Iran.
By the order of the Prelate, Archbishop Oshagan, Requiem Services for
the soul of the late Bishop will take place in all Eastern Prelacy
churches on Sunday, May 2.
May his memory be forever blessed.
PRELACY SECRETARIAT
April 27, 2010
Biography
BISHOP NSHAN TOPOUZIAN
Bishop Nshan Topouzian, (baptismal name Ara), was born in 1966 in
Lebanon. In 1984, after completing the five-level Jarankavorats (high
school) program at the Seminary of the Holy See of Cilicia, he was
ordained a deacon. During the next three years he completed the
Seminarys Undzayaran (college) program, and in 1987 he was ordained a
celibate priest and renamed Nshan by His Holiness Karekin II,
Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, of blessed memory.
In February 1991 he was assigned to Tabriz, Iran, as a
visiting priest to the Aderbadagan Diocese. In May of the same year,
His Holiness Karekin II appointed him Pontifical Legate of that
Diocese. After serving for nearly 11 years, in August 2002 he was
elected Prelate of the Aderbadagan Diocese. On June 4, 2006, he was
elevated to the rank of Bishop by His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of
the Great House of Cilicia.
Bishop Nshans 15-year service to the Aderbadagan Diocese
was very productive. With his leadership and effort by the National
Representative Assembly and the diocesan council,
Tabrizs four churches and prelacy were totally renovated, the Nareg
residences in Tabriz were built, the Ararat Cultural Center was
established, and a new church was built in Urmia.
Bishop Nshan played a major role in the renovation and
preservation of historical churches and monasteries in Northern Iran,
namely St. Tadeh and St. Stepanos Monasteries and the Church at
Jorjor. Under great personal danger several different times he
photographed, along the banks of the Arax River, the destruction of
thousands of khatchkars in the Armenian cemetery in Old Julfa in
Nakhichevan by the Azerbaijan army. Thanks to the photographs he took,
the Armenian people and international governments and agencies were
made aware of the destruction taking place.
Bishop Nshan who was fluent in Persian and Azeri-Turkish
was able to establish good relations with officials in Northern Iran
and defend the rights of the Armenian Church and people within the
historical Aderbadagan boundaries.
His death is a great loss to the Great House of Cilicia,
the Aderbadagan Diocese, and for the entire Armenian church and
nation.