Jerusalem police stop Armenian pilgrims from attending Easter ceremony
By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press
Ha’aretz, English Edition
23/04/2006
Police prevented hundreds of Armenian worshipers from taking part
in a sacred pre-Easter ceremony at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher
Saturday.
Armenian church officials said the police behaved rudely to church
members and senior clergy and arrested four Armenians near the Old
City police station, releasing them only after the Armenians stopped
the festive procession to the church in protest.
Armenian Archbishop Nourhan Manougian told Haaretz that the police
only allowed 400 of 700 Armenian pilgrims to enter the church for
the Ceremony of the Holy Fire, despite the fact that all had entry
permits, as required by police, he said.
“Israel always declares that it allows free access to the holy places
but in fact the police acted like a despot to the pilgrims. There
were some who had come especially for the ceremony from the U.S.,
from Canada and from Australia who were not allowed in,” continued
Manougian.
During the ceremony, a flame, believed by some faithful to be
miraculously ignited, illuminated thousands of worshipers’ torches
and candles at the church, as tense hours of waiting and shoving
culminated in the celebration of the rite.
Believers see the passage of the flame among worshipers as connecting
many of the 200 million Orthodox Christians worldwide to their
spiritual roots.
The ritual dates back at least 1,200 years. The precise details of
the flame’s source are a closely guarded secret, but some believe it
appears spontaneously from the burial area, as a message from Jesus on
the eve of the Orthodox Easter that he has not forgotten his followers.
Some 3,000 police were involved in security at the ceremony, which
was attended by approximately 15,000 pilgrims.
Manougian met on the eve of the ceremony with the commander of the
Jerusalem district of the police, Major General Ilan Franko, and
asked him to treat the pilgrims politely. However he said Franko
“spoke to me as if I were a student of his, and hinted all the time
that if we did not abide by the agreements…”
The Jerusalem police responded that officers had detained a number of
intoxicated individuals who had joined the Armenian procession and were
behaving wildly. They were released when they calmed down, police said.
With regard to complaints that Armenian worshipers were pushed,
police said it was Armenian clergy who had pushed Russian pilgrims
trying to join the procession, and that officers had intervened only
to separate the two sides.
Police also said Franko had conducted talks in recent weeks with
all sides involved in the ceremony, and had reached an agreement
acceptable to all. “The meeting ended with embraces and kisses,
and so Archbishop Manougian’s claims are surprising,” police said.