Sole custodian of Armenian church in Dhaka dies at 89

Panorama, Armenia
Society 14:18 14/04/2020 World

The last Armenian who took care of the Armenian Church of Holy Resurrection in Old Dhaka, Bangladesh in the past decades, Michael Joseph Martin (Mikhail Hovsep Martirossian) has passed away at the age of 89, Arevelk newspaper reports.

His family confirmed the news, adding no other Armenians lived in the city any longer, the church had no abbot for a long time and Mikhail Martirossian was its sole custodian.

He was born on 6 June 1930 in Rangoon, Burma (currently Myanmar) and moved to Dhaka in 1942. From the 1980s, he took care of the church and the cemetery next to it, where about 400 Armenians are buried.

Mikhail Martirossian was awarded a medal by Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II for his service to the Armenian church.

He died in Canada, where he had moved due to his advanced age and illness in order to be close to his children.