Politics 15:15 10/05/2022 Armenia

Armenian Patriarch of Turkey spreads contradictory messages on April 24

By Harut Sassounian

Publisher, The California Courier

Ever since Archbishop Sahak Mashalian became the Armenian Patriarch of Turkey in 2019, he has made a series of questionable statements on the Armenian Genocide and bestowed lavish praise upon Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his denialist remarks.

It is understandable, to a degree, why Armenians in Turkey, especially those in leadership positions, are forced to go along with the Turkish government’s denials of the Armenian Genocide, since they are hostages in Turkey. However, there are red lines that no Armenian, let alone a clergyman, should cross regardless of circumstances or locality.

However, we should not ascribe all of the Patriarch’s declarations to threats or pressures from the Turkish government. He has made many subservient statements of his own free will in order to get elected as Patriarch or endear himself to the authorities.

The Patriarch’s most recent controversial statement came in a lengthy sermon he delivered in Armenian and Turkish on April 24, the anniversary of the Armenian Genocide at Istanbul’s Kumkapu Sourp Haroutioun Church. While I welcome his desire to commemorate the Armenian Genocide, I question the accuracy of some of his statements. In my humble opinion, the Patriarch would have been better off giving a short sermon, simply expressing his sympathies to those who lost their lives in 1915. Given his mixed messages, he risked alienating both Armenians and Turks.

Let us now turn to the Patriarch’s sermon. He started by saying that April 24 commemorates Armenians who were killed during World War I. The Patriarch is thus copying the denialist words of Pres. Erdogan who misrepresents the Armenian dead as victims of war, not genocide. The Patriarch also capitalized on the fact that in 2015, Catholicos Karekin II declared all victims of the Armenian Genocide to be “saints,” which led the Patriarch to qualify April 24 as “no longer a day of mourning,” but “a day of remembrance for the consecrated saints.”

The Patriarch then came up with the following strange explanation: “The immortality of the victims of the Meds Yeghern began on the day of their death. We simply awoke to this truth after a hundred years of mourning!” He accused all those who continue to commemorate the Armenian Genocide of wanting “to sink in and remain forever in the inescapable nightmare of labyrinths of the Yeghern.”

While the Patriarch falsely represented the genocide as resulting from war, he also made some accurate assessments regarding the consequences of “Meds Yeghern” on the Armenian people, particularly the loss of their homes and lands:

“Today is April 24. It is the infamous day of remembrance of the terrible tragedy of our nation a century ago; a miserable date that symbolizes the start of one of the darkest chapters of our history.... which is familiar to us as ‘Meds Yeghern.’ …A nation was torn from its centuries-old settlements as a result of a policy cultivated and developed for reasons incomprehensible to us. The word deportation is embossed on our Armenian identity in its most painful shades. This unfortunate practice has led to the emptying of monasteries, the desolation of places of worship, the deprivation of schools of teachers and students, and in general, the settlements from their inhabitants. Families were left to mourn the loss of their parents and children. Men and women, old men and boys, young men and virgins were forced to follow a deadly path. In other words, a negative situation as a result of which hundreds of thousands of people were forced to bear in their wounded hearts the pain of irreversible and irreparable losses.”

The Patriarch continued his mixed messages by condemning the denial of the genocide, while criticizing its recognition by foreign parliaments, describing their actions as “provocations by distant countries.” On the positive side, he dared to use the term genocide once in Armenian and Turkish in his sermon: “It should be noted that the denial of the pain experienced by the Armenians on these lands wounds the conscience. We should also mention that we find contrary to moral principles the efforts that tend to use the pains of our fathers on the international stage as politicized theses against Turkey. Neither the denial nor the genocide resolutions adopted by the parliaments of various countries will bring honor to the pains suffered or to the people who lived through them on these lands. On the contrary, angry and defensive sides, by augmenting the shadows of the past, cause the peoples’ hopes to reconcile and develop natural relations to be dimmed and to block the present and future of the neighboring peoples.”

The Patriarch then suffered from a massive spell of amnesia by falsely describing “the events of the past 107 years… as a painful exception to the millennial common history” of Armenians and Turks. The Patriarch conveniently forgot the centuries of oppression suffered by Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, the Hamidian massacres of the 1890’s that caused the deaths of 300,000 Armenians, and the Adana massacre of 1909 that resulted in the killing of 30,000 Armenians.

The Patriarch, however, did not forget to praise Pres. Erdogan as the “unique figure” who issued sympathetic statements on April 24. The fact is that Erdogan’s statements should be condemned, not praised, for distorting the truth about the Armenian Genocide.

The Patriarch ended his sermon by supporting the ongoing diplomatic efforts for “rapprochement” between Armenia and Turkey. He must realize that without acknowledging the truth and establishing justice, there can be no reconciliation.



Source Panorama.am
Share |

Newsfeed

17:02
Footballer killed by lightning strike at match in Peru
A football player in Peru has died and more have suffered injuries after being struck by lightning during a match on Sunday afternoon, the Daily...
16:46
On the trail of a post about Lori shared by Georgian president
Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili shared on Facebook a post by a Georgian travel agency offering tours to Armenia’s Lori Province on...
16:05
Parliament speaker names ruling party's candidate for Gyumri mayor
Armenia’s ruling Civil Contract party has picked Karen Sarukhanyan, a former governor of Shirak Province, as its candidate for the next...
15:42
Pashinyan criticized for failure to congratulate Moldova's president on re-election
Artur Sakunts, a human rights activist who heads the Helsinki Citizens' Assembly-Vanadzor, on Monday criticized Prime Minister Nikol...
15:07
Car crash in Armenia leaves one dead, three wounded
A tragic car crash in Armenia’s Aragatsotn Province on Monday left one person killed and three others injured. The Rescue Service...
14:36
Yerevan mayor says his 'good looks' could make him a target for corruption rumors
Yerevan Mayor Tigran Avinyan denied allegations of corrupt practices involving him as defamation.  “I guess my good looks...
14:14
Putin to accept credentials from new Armenian envoy on Tuesday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will receive the letters of credence from 28 newly arrived foreign ambassadors, including Armenian...
13:45
Legendary music producer Quincy Jones dies at 91
Quincy Jones, a titan of American entertainment who worked with stars from Frank Sinatra to Michael Jackson and Will Smith, has died aged...
13:30
Rain expected in some parts of Armenia on Monday
Rain is forecast for some parts of Armenia on Monday, with snow set to hit the country’s mountainous areas. Clear weather is expected...
13:04
At least 10 killed after volcano erupts in Indonesia
At least 10 people have been killed after a volcano erupted in eastern Indonesia in the early hours of Monday, BBC News reports, citing local...
12:46
ICRC visits Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan
Employees of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) visited Armenian prisoners held in Azerbaijan in October this year....
12:26
Spanish king pelted with eggs in flood-hit Valencia
Angry residents booed and threw eggs at Spain’s King Felipe and Queen Letizia as they visited the Valencia region, where more than 200...
12:10
Political analyst: Azerbaijan sitting on the twine
Political analyst Stepan Danielyan has weighed in on the latest developments regarding the Ukraine conflict. In a social media post on...
11:35
Tatoyan Foundation working to expose Azerbaijan's lies about Artsakh
Specialists of the Tatoyan Foundation are doing extensive work to expose the false Azerbaijani narratives about Armenia and Artsakh...
11:16
Maia Sandu wins second term in Moldovan presidential election
Moldova's pro-Western incumbent president Maia Sandu has won a second term in a pivotal presidential runoff against a Russia-friendly...
11:00
Trump reiterates support for Artsakh Armenians in phone call with Catholicos Aram I
Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump on Friday phoned His Holiness Aram I, Catholicos of the Great House of...
17:13
Public figure accuses Armenian authorities of attempting to intimidate him
Public figure Hovhannes Avetisyan, an expert in public finance management, accused the Armenian authorities of repression and crackdown on their...
16:34
Iran's supreme leader threatens Israel and US with 'crushing response'
Iran’s supreme leader on Saturday threatened Israel and the U.S. with “a crushing response” over attacks on Iran and its...
16:15
Armenia offers condolences to Serbia over tragic collapse at railway station
Armenia has extended condolences to Serbia following the tragic collapse at a railway station, which killed at least 14 people and...
16:00
Armenian lifter Alexander Lazaryan crowned junior European champion
Armenian weightlifter Alexander Lazaryan bagged a gold medal at the European Junior and U23 Championships being held in Raszyn, Poland, from...
15:36
Spiritual leaders urged to raise awareness on injustice against Artsakh Armenians ahead of COP29
His Holiness Catholicos Aram I of the Holy See of Cilicia, His Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch Raphaël Bedros XXI of the Armenian Catholic...
15:00
Showers possible in Yerevan on Sunday
Clear weather is expected in Armenia on Saturday and later next week. Rain is forecast for some parts of the country on Sunday and Monday,...
14:35
Catholicos Aram I, Ocampo discuss issues related to Artsakh
Luis Moreno Ocampo, the first prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Friday contacted His Holiness Catholicos Aram I by...
13:53
Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan reportedly targeted for UFC 311 on January 18
Islam Makhachev vs. Arman Tsarukyan rematch is the only fight that makes sense in the lightweight division at the moment. The champ is running...
13:27
Armenian Genocide denial risks new tragedies, MP warns
Opposition lawmaker Tigran Abrahamyan blasted Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan’s latest genocide remarks as dangerous for Armenia’s...
12:46
Urgent action needed to safeguard integrity of COP29 as fossil fuel influence looms large in Baku, report warns
We are days away from the start of COP29 in Azerbaijan. After previous hosts Egypt and the UAE, many had hoped for a more promising (and less...
12:30
Armenian church marks Feast of All Saints
The Armenian Apostolic Church on Saturday celebrates the Feast of All Saints, also called All Saints' Day. The day...
12:01
Paris Masters: Khachanov through to semi-finals
Russian-Armenian Karen Khachanov won against Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov, the No 8 seed, 6-2, 6-3 to move into the last four of Paris Masters at...
11:30
Analysis: Aliyev's daughters reportedly control business empire worth over $13 billion
Michael Rubin, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and director of policy analysis at the Middle East...
11:00
Armenia's Milena Khachatryan wins silver at U23 European Championships
Armenian weightlifter Milena Khachatryan grabbed a silver medal at the European Junior and U23 Championships being held in Raszyn, Poland, from...

Follow us and get updates!

Most popular articles

{"core.blocks.header.spell_message1":"Selected mistake: ","core.blocks.header.spell_message2":"Send a message about the mistake?"}