Destruction of Armenian Holy Martyrs Church not accidental
From September 18-21, the 5th Armenian Church Representative Assembly was held in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, under the presidency of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians. The attendees discussed the challenges facing the Armenian Church and the Armenian faithful as well as matters of providing and implementing solutions After the adoption of the Assembly regulations, the participants discussed the events in the run-up to the commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide. Speaking about the challenges faced by Syrian Armenians, His Grace Bishop Arshak Khachatryan said there is a need for nationwide coordination. “We should think about accommodating Syrian refugees in Armenia,” he said. Speaking about the destruction of the Armenian Church in Deir Ez-zor, Syria, the bishop cited the various opinions expressed in the press and in different circles that the blowup of the Armenian Holy Martyrs Church in Deir ez-Zor following the announcement of Catholicos Aram I of the Great House of Cilicia was not accident. “I do not want to go back to the comments and interpretations but it is clear that it was a terrorist act against an Armenian church, an Armenian monument, as well as our perceptions and expectations connected with the Genocide,” he said adding that the barbarism was an yet another attempt to abort the process of the Genocide recognition – our great demand for justice. Addressing the 5th Armenia-Diaspora forum in Yerevan, Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I said that the Church is going to apply to the Constitutional Court of Turkey with a suit for the recovery of the huge property of the Armenian Church, in particular, the residence of the Catholicos of Cilicia in Sis. The blowup of the Armenian church in Syria was perceived in Armenia and outside its bounedries as Turkey's response the claims of Armenians.
