Epress.am News from Armenia
The Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia has officially announced that Catholicos representatives won’t be participating in the “opening ceremony of the Akhtamar Holy Cross church.” As previously reported, Turkish authorities have allowed a one-day mass to be held in the Armenian church on Lake Van’s Akhtamar Island on September 19.
One of the reasons for His Holiness Aram I’s decision is “Turkey’s continued policy of betrayal and denial.”
“Really, it’s obvious that with this initiative, Turkey’s attempting to present itself to the international community and the Armenian people under a veil of a peace-loving, good neighbor and a defender of human rights, behind which stands the same genocidal Turkey, with its policy of betrayal and denial,” reads the official statement from the Catholicos.