His Holiness Karekin II Blesses Ground for New Chapel at Tsitsernakaberd
27.04.2005
On the occasion of the 90th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, the addition of a new chapel has been planned for the "Tsitsernakaberd" genocide memorial complex in Yerevan. On April 23, His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians, blessed the soil surrounding a stone marker at the site of the future chapel.
"A holy chapel is to be erected on the heights of Tsitsernakaberd. Here, the never-ending prayers of humanity will be offered to heaven in memory of our martyrs. It is to be built, so that the blessings that radiate from the chapel will cover the unburied bones of our 1.5 million victims like a cloak and its roof will become a home for the souls of the innocent victims. Our people will come as pilgrims to this sacred chapel, and in the presence of these monuments commemorating the Genocide, will stand under the gaze of Mount Ararat and confirm our fidelity towards the holy faith of our ancestors. Here, we shall make an oath, promising to live with the determination and diligence of keeping their dreams and visions alive.
"Church bells will ring from this hilltop, they will spread out over the Diaspora throughout the world, as a clarion call urging our children to continue their righteous and consistent struggle for the recognition and condemnation of the Armenian Genocide, so that no one will dare to ever devise an evil program of the extermination of a nation", noted the Pontiff of All Armenians.
The chapel will be built by the donations of the entire Armenian nation, both in the homeland and in dispersion, and will allow Armenians and non-Armenians who visit the memorial to offer their prayers to heaven. When the "Tsitsernakaberd" memorial was originally designed and constructed in the 1960?s, the Soviet authorities would not allow for a chapel to be built at the site, and this initiative will complete the complex which at present consists of the eternal flame monument, the "mourning wall", the genocide museum (built in 1995), and the memorial grove of trees planted by visiting heads of state, heads of churches and dignitaries.
Present for the service were Mr. Vartan Oskanian, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Manouk Topuzian, Chief of Staff/Minister of Government, Diocesan Primates and members of the Brotherhood of Holy Etchmiadzin. Also in attendance were high-ranking clergymen from sister churches who had arrived in Armenia on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide: Bishop Mark Yegoryevski of the Russian Orthodox Church (Patriarchate of Moscow), Archbishop Malatius of the Syrian Orthodox Church, Archbishop Seraphim of the Georgian Orthodox Church, Bishop Corneliu of the Romanian Orthodox Church, Bishop Ioannis of the Greek Orthodox Church, Bishop David Tustin of the Church of England, Rev. Jean-Arnold de Clermont, President of the Conference of European Churches, Dn. Alexander Vasiutin and Dr. Sergey Govorun (Russian Orthodox Church) and Prof. Sergo Vastanidze (Georgian Orthodox Church).
