Complaint filed against election of Armenian Patriarch

Özge Eğrikar - ISTANBUL

An executive of the Surp Yerrortutyun Armenian (Üç Horan) Church Foundation in Istanbul’s Beyoğlu district has applied to a court against the election process of the new Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul, claiming that candidates serving the Armenian Church abroad were denied nomination.

Simon Çekem, a lawyer and an executive member of the Üç Horan Church, issued a complaint against the governor’s office in Istanbul and the Turkish Interior Ministry on the grounds that the enterprising board, consisting of member of the Armenian community, did not let Armenian clergymen serving the church abroad to be nominated as the next top religious leader of Orthodox Christian Armenians in Turkey.

In the previous elections, those potential candidates living abroad but being a son of an Armenian father from Turkey were allowed to be nominated, he said in his statement of claim.

However, the filed complaint should be directed to the board instead of the governor’s office and the ministry, the court decided.

Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan died at age 62 in the Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital in Istanbul’s Zeytinburnu district on March 8 where he was receiving treatment.

He had been incapacitated since 2008 with an early onset of dementia.