1.5 ARMENIANS WERE MARTYRED TO REMAIN CHRISTIAN – ARMENIAN CLERICS’ DECISION DUE LATER TODAY
11:06 ~U 27.09.13
The Mother See of Holy Echmiadzin will hold Friday a news conference
to declare the final results of the Bishops’ meeting which is to
decide whether and how to beatify the victims of the Armenian Genocide.
“The participants of the assembly will make a final decision on that
in the morning,” Priest Vahram Melikyan, a spokesperson for the Mother
See, told Tert.am.
He said he expects the bishops to make finally what he called a wise
decision, by declaring the Genocide victims sacred martyrs.
“The bishops of the Armenian Church have now gathered together under
the leadership of the Catholicos. They are much wiser and better
informed and will undoubtedly make a wise decision on how to beatify
[the victims]. After all, the one and a half million Armenians, who
were martyred, chose that fate to remain an Armenian and a Christian,”
he said.
The priest noted from the 17th century onwards, the Armenian Apostolic
Church has not made decision to declare anyone sacred.
“So, no one has been beatified because we did not have and use the
procedures of beatification. But didn’t the Armenian Church have
any sacred [creatures] in the past four centuries? No doubt, it had;
especially in the period of the Genocide, there were many proofs and
accounts on how people were martyred for the sake of belief,” he said.
Armenian News – Tert.am