A vicar will be elected within a week after the 40 days following the death of the 84th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Mesrob Mutafyan. If the election of the vicar is postponed, the elections of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople will be held within 3-4 weeks. This is what editor of the Armenian language section of Istanbul’s Agos Weekly Bagrat Estoukian told NEWS.am.
“First, a vicar will be elected, after which a committee will be set up to address a letter to the bishops with the power to be candidates so that it understands whether they will participate in the elections or not. Afterwards, the committee will set the date of the elections. The candidates will campaign and convey their messages to the public,” he said.
Among the possible candidates, Bagrat Estoukian mentioned head of the church council, Fr. Bishop Sahag Mashalian; leader of the Gugarats Diocese Sebouh Chouljian; former vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Karekin Bekchian and current vicar Aram Ateshian. “Only His Holiness Khajag Parsamian has stated that he doesn’t want to become a patriarch and won’t be running in the elections.”
According to him, the people don't have sympathy for Aram Ateshian. “He was rather widely criticized by Istanbul-Armenians, as well as Armenians in Armenia and abroad,” he said.
However, Bagrat Estoukian stressed that there is still a lot of uncertainty about the elections of the patriarch. According to him, Turkey won’t directly get entangled in the elections since that would be illegitimate and will have the opposite effect.
On 8 March, Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople Mesrob Mutafyan passed away after suffering from a long illness. He was 63 years old.
The patriarch had been bed-ridden for many years and wasn’t able to perform his duties. By the decision of the Turkish government, Archbishop Aram Ateshian is performing the duties of the patriarch.