| Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople | |
|---|---|
 Coat-of-arms of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople | |
| Classification | Oriental Orthodox |
| Primate | Sahak II Mashalian[1] |
| Language | Western Armenian |
| Headquarters | Istanbul,Turkey |
| Territory | Turkey |
| Recognition | byArmenian Apostolic Church as their autonomous church |
| Separations | Armenian Evangelical Church (1846) |
| Members | 95,000 |
TheArmenian Patriarchate of Constantinople (Turkish:İstanbul Ermeni Patrikhanesi;WesternArmenian:Պատրիարքութիւն Հայոց Կոստանդնուպոլսոյ,Badriark'ut'iun Hayots' Gosdantnubolsoy) is anautonomoussee of theArmenian Apostolic Church. The seat of theArmenian Patriarch of Constantinople (French:Patriarche de Constantinople,Turkish:Konstantinopolis Ermeni Patriği[note 1]), also known asArmenian Patriarch of Istanbul, is theSurp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church (Holy Mother of God Patriarchal Church) in theKumkapı neighborhood ofIstanbul.
Thepatriarchate is one of the smallest of theOriental Orthodox Churches but one that has exerted a very significant political role and today still exercises a spiritual authority. The Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople recognizes the primacy of theCatholicos of All Armenians, in the spiritual and administrative headquarters of the Armenian Church, theEtchmiadzin,Armenia, in matters that pertain to the worldwideArmenian Apostolic Church. In local matters, the patriarchalsee isautonomous.
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During theByzantine period, the Armenian Apostolic Church had not been allowed to operate in Constantinople because the two churches (Armenian Church and Orthodox Church) mutually regarded each other as heretical.[citation needed] The schism was rooted in the rejection of theCouncil of Chalcedon by the Oriental Orthodox Churches, of which the Armenian Church is a part, while the Byzantine Church and the rest ofEastern Orthodoxy had accepted it.
After conquering Constantinople, theOttoman Empire allowed theGreek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople to stay in the city. But SultanMehmed II asked the Armenians to establish their own church in the new Ottoman capital, as part of theMillet system. From then on the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople acted as a superior religious institution in the Ottoman Empire, even standing over theArmenian Catholicos. For a short period, theSyriac Orthodox Church was also placed under the jurisdiction of the Armenian Patriarchate.[citation needed]
The first Armenian patriarch of Constantinople wasHovakim I, who was at the time the metropolitan ofBursa. In 1461, he was brought to Constantinople bySultan Mehmed II and established as the Armenian patriarch of Constantinople. Hovakim I was recognized as the religious andsecular leader of all Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, and carried the title ofmilletbaşı orethnarch as well aspatriarch.
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The Armenian Patriarchate served the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire with a line of patriarchs in Constantinople. However, like the Greek Patriarchate, the Armenians suffered severely from intervention by the state in their internal affairs. Although there have been 115 pontificates since 1461, there have only been 84 individual patriarchs. In 1861, a national constitution (Sahmanadrootiun in Armenian) was granted to Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire by SultanAbdülaziz. In 1896 PatriarchMadteos III (Izmirlian) was deposed and exiled toJerusalem by SultanAbdülhamid II for boldly denouncing the 1896 massacre.[clarification needed] The constitution governing the Armenians was suspended by the Sultan.
The Armenian patriarch of Constantinople Madteos III (Izmirlian) was permitted to return to Istanbul in 1908 when SultanAbdulhamid II was deposed by the Young Turks.
The new Turkish administration also restored the constitution. In the initial period of the reign of the Young Turks, the Armenians enjoyed a brief period of restoration of civil liberties between 1908 and 1915.
However, in 1915 the Armenians suffered great hardship under the Young Turk administration owing to the desire of the Turkish government for its peoples to be religiously homogeneous (i.e., Muslim), motivated perhaps by an imagined threat of Armenians from Russian influences with whom Turkey was at war. The Armenian community of Turkey in 1915 was accordingly decimated by mass deportations and killings. The events surrounding thisethnic cleansing of Armenians from Turkey have become known as theArmenian genocide. The inability of Turkey to acknowledge these events has been a source of significant angst among Armenians worldwide for the past hundred years. Prior to 1915, 1.1 million Armenians lived in Turkey; today (2015) less than 100,000 reside there.
With this backdrop of turmoil for Armenians, the post of the patriarch remained vacant from 1915 to 1919. The office was abolished by theCouncil of Ministers on July 28, 1916.[3] It was restored for a brief period from 1919 to 1922 withPatriarch Zaven I Der Yeghiayan residing. To alleviate the fate of the survivors of the Armenian genocide the patriarchate founded a Committee for Orphan Relief, a Central Committee for Deportees and was also involved in the establishment of the National Relief Mission.[4]
Despite a huge diminution in the number of its faithful during the Armenian genocide, the patriarchate remains the spiritual head of the largest Christian community presently living in Turkey.
Today, the Armenian patriarchs are recognized as the head of the Armenian Apostolic Church in Turkey and he is invited to state ceremonies.
Five Armenian patriarchs have served after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey. The synod of the Patriarchate has designated, with the votes of 25 of its 26 members,[5] Aram Ateşyan asPatrik Genel Vekili (Turkish for acting patriarch) in 2010 because of the illness of the PatriarchMesrob II Mutafyan. Some members of theArmenian community of Turkey criticised this move and asked for the election of a new patriarch by universal suffrage instead. (It is estimated that some 20 thousand members of the community are eligible to vote in such an election.)[6] At last, the synod decided to retire the PatriarchMesrob II Mutafyan on October 26, 2016, and to organize an election for a new patriarch.[1][7][8][9] Following the death of Patriarch Mesrob II, Abp.Sahak II Mashalian was elected Patriarch of İstanbul in 2019.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) (info page on book atMartin Luther University) - Cited: p. 45-46 (PDF p. 47-48)
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