Mesrop Mutafyan

Mesrop II. Mutafyan , poor. Մեսրոպ Բ Մութաֆեան (born June 16, 1956 in Istanbul ; † March 8, 2019 ibid) was Archbishop and Patriarch of the Armenian Apostolic Church of Constantinople , based in Istanbul.

Life

Mesrop Mutafyan graduated from the American High School in Kornwestheim near Stuttgart and studied philosophy and sociology in Memphis from 1974 to 1979 . On May 13, 1979, he was ordained a priest in Istanbul and appointed pastor of the island of Kınalı . Until 1981 he continued his theological studies in Jerusalem . On September 21, 1986, he was in Etchmiadzin bishop ordained . From 1982 to 1990 he coordinated the ecumenical relations of the patriarchate. In 1988/89 he attended the Pontifical St. Thomas University ( Angelicum ) in Rome . In 1993 he was raised to Archbishop of the Prince Islands and from 1997 served as Vicar General of the Patriarch. After the death of Patriarch Karekin II Kazanjian , he was elected servant of the throne ( locum tenens ) on March 16, 1998 . In the election process that followed, local Turkish authorities promoted the claims of the senior Archbishop Shahan Sivaciyan of Skutari , but Mesrop Mutafyan was finally elected and in 1999 was appointed to his post.

His congregation in Turkey includes around 60,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians, 45,000 of whom live in Istanbul. There is also an unknown number of “ crypto-Armenians ”. Up to 1.5 million Armenians died when the Ottomans carried out the genocide of the Armenians in the shadow of the First World War . Today they live as a small group in Turkey .

In July 2008 it became known that Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan had Alzheimer's disease and dementia , and he has since withdrawn completely from the public. He has since been represented by Aram Ateşyan .

Act

One of the main tasks of the patriarch was to prevent the remaining Armenians from being treated as second class citizens and from leaving their ancestors' lands due to the repression.

Mesrop II understood his office as "service in the sense of reconciliation". As he said again and again, “this can only be done through dialogue and caution”.

As Catholicos Karekin II. Nersissian of Echmiadzin during his first Pontifikalreise to Turkey in June 2006 on June 25 at a press conference the recognition of the genocide of the Armenians demanded that the amount reimbursed Turkish Bar Association criminal complaint against him for " insulting Turkishness ". When asked by Turkish journalists, Karekin II merely stated that the genocide of the Armenians was an indisputable historical fact. He said literally:

“There is no open question for our people. This is something that happened and needs to be recognized. The question of genocide has been researched by academics for 90 years. "

Patriarch Mesrob Mutafyan then criticized the Turkish Bar Association's criminal complaint:

“Although the judiciary should be independent from the executive, the way these two powers contradict each other in Turkey is most strange. While the head of government and the foreign minister of the Turkish Republic propose joint research into the disaster of 1915 with Armenia, the jurisdiction shows zero tolerance for dissenting ideas. How can the proposed process of dialogue and study take place in such circumstances? "

Patriarch Mesrob has sharply condemned the murder of the Armenian journalist and newspaper publisher Hrant Dink in Istanbul and declared a 15-day church mourning period. It was a very serious event that was directed against freedom of expression, said the patriarch. Mesrob II condemned the perpetrator or perpetrators , but did not hide the fact that he did not always agree with Dink.

literature

• Huberta von Voss: Referee on smooth terrain: His Beatitude Mesrop II, Patriarch of the Armenians in Turkey , in: Huberta von Voss: Portrait of a Hope. The Armenians. Pictures of life from all over the world , Verlag Hans Schiler Köthen 2005 ISBN 3-89930-087-4

Web links

• the official bulletin of the Patriarch of Istanbul and Turkey (in Turkish, Armenian and English)
• Interview with Qantara (Dialogue with the Islamic World) from 2007

Individual evidence

1. ↑ www.todayszaman.com: Turkish "Foreign Ministry: 89,000 minorities live in Turkey" "Containing detailed statistics about the minority groups in Turkey, the report reveals that 45,000 of approximately 60,000 Armenians reside in İstanbul." ( Memento from May 1, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
2. ↑ Asbarez.com Mutafyan with Alzheimer diagnosed (in English) July 31, 2008
3. ↑ Vatican Radio : Turkey: Patriarch proclaims mourning after Hrant Dink's murder ( memento of October 16, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) January 20, 2007

predecessor	Office	successor
Karekin II. Kazanjian	Patriarch of Constantinople of the Armenian Apostolic Church 1998–2019	Sahag II. Maschalian