TOP HIERARCH OF ARMENIAN CHURCH GOES ON VISIT TO ISTANBUL
by Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
June 20, 2006 Tuesday 03:39 PM EST
Supreme Hierarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Garegin
II, left for Istanbul Tuesday night on what is the third ministerial
visit of Turkey by the head of the Armenian Church over a period of
45 years.
He is making the weeklong trip to Turkey at the invitation of Armenian
Patriarch in that country, Meerop Mutaffian, and the Eastern Orthodox
Patriarch of the Universe, Bartholomew I.
Spokesmen for the Chancellery of the Armenian Church in the holy
monastery of Echmiadzin told Itar-Tass Garegin II’s brotherly talks
with His Holiness Bartholomew will be devoted to discussion of church
relations.
Garegin II is expected bless the Armenian believers in Istanbul
numbering about 60,000 people and to meet with intellectuals and
young members of the Armenian community.
June 25, he will serve the divine liturgy in the Armenian Cathedral
of the Virgin Mary in the district of Kumkapi.
Garegin II is also expected to have a meeting with the Governor of
Istanbul – an event acquiring political significance in view of the
fact that even 15 years after proclamation of independence by Armenia
the two neighboring countries still do not have diplomatic relations.
Armenian official quarters voice readiness to establish diplomatic
relations with Turkey without any prior conditions but the Turkish
government says, on its part, it will normalize relations with Yerevan
on the condition that Armenia stop a campaign for international
recognition of genocide against Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire
and drop support of ethnic Armenians in the Azerbaijani region of
Karabakh.
The Patriarchate in Turkey is number four largest see of the Armenian
Church embracing 46 parishes.
Before the tragic events of 1915, the Church had 1,181 parishes and
132 monasteries on Turkish territory.
Catholicate visits to Istanbul are rather rare events. Catholicos
Vazgen I went there in 1961 to attend the funeral of Armenian Patriarch
Garegin Khachaturian and Catholicos Garegin I paid a visit in 1996
at the invitation of the Eastern Orthodox Patriarch of the Universe.