The Armenian community of Istanbul is in an outrage over the electoral regulations that the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs has sent to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople.

As reported Agos Armenian Weekly, the Istanbul-Armenians’ Public Initiative Group has addressed the initiating group organizing the elections of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople with a call, demanding that the group take measures to change the point in the regulations of the Ministry of Internal Affairs stating that only the bishops subordinate to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople may participate in the elections.

The call states that the results of the elections may be disputed, if these regulations apply.

The electoral regulations that the Turkish Ministry of Internal Affairs sent to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople state that only a bishop subordinate to the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople may be elected a patriarch, but in the past, any clergyman born in Turkey could participate in the elections, regardless of which country he would serve in.