Posted on 04/16/2015 6:42:55 PM PDT by markomalley
Pope Tawadros II, Patriarch of the Coptic Orthodox Church, will travel to Yerevan on April 20 to take part in the most significant events planned to commemorate the centenary of the Armenian Genocide. Pope Tawadros’ visit to Armenia will last about a week.
Sources of the Coptic Patriarchate consulted by Agenzia Fides report that it will be the first participation of a Coptic Orthodox Patriarch in official commemorations of the Armenian Genocide.
The Armenian Apostolic Church and the Coptic Church belong to the group of Oriental Orthodox Churches, also referred to as "pre-chaldedonian", because they had refused some Christological formulations defined at the Council of Chalcedon (year 451).
The commemoration of the centenary of the "Big Evil" will culminate in the liturgy for the canonization of the victims of the Armenian Genocide, scheduled for April 23 in Yerevan, at the Patriarchal See of Echmiadzin Catholicosate, governed by Patriarch Karekin II. About forty Churches, ecclesial communities and ecumenical bodies, have already confirmed the presence of a delegation to the rite of canonization. On that same day, at 19.15 - hour chosen to symbolically recall the year 1915 - all Armenian churches in the world, except those scattered on Turkish territory, will ring bells. (GV)
Also this:
Even the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople will commemorate the victims of the Genocide
Even the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, based in Istanbul, will commemorate the hundredth anniversary of the systematic massacres against the Armenian people which began on April 24, 1915 with the roundup and killing of hundreds of intellectuals of the Armenian community that resided in the metropolis on the Bosporus. A Mass presided by the Patriarchal Vicar Aram Ateshian, will be celebrated in the church of the patriarchal Seat to commemorate the victims of mass murder, which on this occasion will be commemorated as saints. The Turkish press emphasizes that the celebrant will not use the definition of Genocide to remember the suffering experienced "from all sides" in the tragic events of a hundred years ago.
In the meantime, journalist and Turkish Armenian writer Etyen Mahcupyan, current first counselor of Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu, acknowledged that the massacres of Armenians perpetrated in Anatolia in 1915 under the direction of ideological Young Turks may legitimately be defined as genocide. "If one recognizes that those that occurred in Bosnia and Africa were Genocide - Mahcupyan said in an interview for an online site - it is impossible not to call genocide also what happened to the Armenians in 1915", adding that the use of such term for the Armenians has a "more psychological than political" meaning.
Prime Minister Davutoglu, said that with his citation of the Armenian Genocide, the Pope has sided with the "face of evil" hostile to Turkey. While President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in statements relaunched by Turkish media said that Turkey "acts generously" by not expelling 100 thousand Armenian immigrants working in the country without being Turkish citizens, even if he "could do it".
A very sad time in history. Prayers offered in remembrance.
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