“I am surprised that our society sometimes is focused on absurd and groundless issues, especially, when there are numerous serious problems in our church” such opinion was expressed by Deputy Director of the Institute of Literature at the National Academy of Sciences, also YVU member Vardan Devrikyan, in response to the question of Aravot.am of whether the clarification made by the Holy See regarding the bank account holding the name of the Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II compelling.
Note that in the last days, scandalous talks are going on around the Armenian Apostolic Church, particularly, around the name of the Catholicos. The matter is that as a result of press release in Switzerland, information is published about HSBC Swiss bank customers, and it was found out that the Catholicos of All Armenians is among them, who is a holder of a bank account since 2000, where there is 1.1 million US dollars. The Holy See clarified that it is not the Catholicos’s personal account, but that of the Church, simply, it was opened in his name. Vardan Devrikyan, in the conversation with us, assured, “I am working in the Holy See since 1993, and I was the editor of the “Illuminator” since 1989, in other words, I am involved in the system of the Holy See for 20 years. And the fact that today they are saying in surprise what account it is, I answer that there was such a thing since the times of His Holiness Vazgen. There were even discussions that this account during Catholicos has become this much, while during the other Catholicos – that much. The Armenian Church has always had a foreign account, all Hierarchical chairs have them and all these accounts are in the name of Patriarchs. When once I was the head of the telegraph – the editor of the “Holy See”, I remember them working on changing this account in the name of Karekin the First. Now, pledging on my reputation, I can say that it existing during all the Patriarchs, and it is not the issue for discussion.”
To our observation of whether it is appropriate to make a comparison with the times of Catholicos Vazgen when the account was opened in 2000, Mr. Devrikyan responded, “Our Catholicos have become a Catholicos in October 1997, and to document or to transfer from one account to another, it is not accidental that the account was opened in 2000. It is the transfer of the previous account in the name of the new Catholicos. Well, if it were in 2010, we could say, “Well what happened during the ten years?” To our question of where we failed that there is a stereotype among the society that the government, churches and businesses are intertwined, Mr. Devrikyan was reluctant to give an extensive explanation and emphasized that reasons thereof generate from our reality. Then he concluded, “If Gregory the Illuminator had come to be a Catholicos, discontents would still arise.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
