“Namaz in Ani Cathedral had political implication”

“The namaz in the Cathedral of Ani was not conditioned by the refusal of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin to attend the Mass in the Surb Khach Church on Aghtamar Island. It rather had a political implication,” His Grace Bishop Arshak Khachatrian of Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin told a news conference Tuesday.

According to him, it was not merely a prayer but a ceremony with a political implication. Radical Islamists avoid attending ceremonies at Christian churches. It was a message to the Armenian people that Christian monuments belong to Turkey. It was an attempt to obliterate the traces of the monuments’ owners, he said.

Asked whether representatives of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin will attend a Mass in the Surb Khach Church after the cross is fixed atop the church, Arshak Khachatrian said that they are likely to accept such an invitation.