CATHOLICOS ARAM I ARRIVES IN YEREVAN TO PARTICIPATE IN CANONIZING 1.5 MILLION ARMENIANS MASSACRED IN OTTOMAN EMPIRE
YEREVAN, April 23. / ARKA /. Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia
Aram I has arrived in Yerevan by a special flight to participate in
a service canonizing up to 1.5 million Armenians massacred in the
Ottoman Empire.
The service will be held Thursday evening in Armenia’s main church,
Etchmiadzin, a 4th-century building believed to be the Christian
world’s oldest cathedral. After the ceremony to be led by Catholicos
of All Armenians, Karekin II, bells will chime in Armenian churches
across the world and a minute of silence will be observed.
In canonizing the genocide victims, “the Church only recognizes what
happened: that is, the genocide”, Karekin II said ahead of the event.
Catholicos Aram I has brought to Armenia remains of the victims
of genocide, which were kept in the chapel of the Holy Martyrs in
the Great House of Cilicia in Lebanon. Aram I is accompanied by a
delegation of bishops and archimandrites.
On Wednesday Turkey recalled its ambassador to Vienna in protest
against the Austrian parliament’s decision to call the massacre
“genocide.” Earlier this month Ankara recalled its envoy to Vatican
after Pope Francis described the killings as “the first genocide of
the 20th century.”
More than 20 nations – including France and Russia – have so far
recognized the Armenian genocide, a definition supported by numerous
historians.
On April 24 hundreds of thousands will join a procession in the
capital Yerevan to remember the victims.
Commemorations will be held also In Paris, Los Angeles and hundreds
of other cities across the globe.
Russian Vladimir Putin and French President Francois Hollande are among
a handful of world leaders to travel to Armenia for the commemorations.
The Armenian Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia is a
hierarchal see of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Since 1930, the
Catholicosate of the Great House of Cilicia has been headquartered
in Antelias, Lebanon.
His Holiness Aram I has served as Catholicos of Cilicia of the Armenian
Apostolic Church since 1995.-0-
From: Baghdasarian