Armenian archbishop urges Armenia not to send experts to Iraq
By Tigran Liloyan
ITAR-TASS News Agency
October 16, 2004 Saturday
YEREVAN, October 16 — The head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in
Iraq has called on the Armenian authorities not to send experts to
Iraq. “Otherwise, the Armenian community and its organizations will
become a target,” Archbishop Avag Asaturyan wrote in a letter to the
Armenian president and parliament.
Nearly 20,000 Armenians whose ancestors fled the 1915 genocide in
the Ottoman Empire live in Iraq.
The Armenian authorities have earlier voiced their intention to send
50 experts to Iraq to assist in the country’s post-war restoration.
Though the question is to be approved by parliament, Armenian
President Robert Kocharyan said during his recent visit to Poland
that the experts would go to Iraq as part of the Polish contingent.