Archbishop Nurkhan Manukyan has recently been enthroned as the 97th Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem in St. James Church in the Armenian quarter of Jerusalem.
The official ceremony has been attended by many senior clerics of the Armenian Church, including the head of the Armenian Church in Great Britain, Vaan Ovanisyan.
The 97th Armenian patriarch of Jerusalem was born in 1948 in Aleppo, Syria, and educated in Lebanon, Jerusalem and the United States.He served as a priest in Switzerland, New York and theIsraeli cities of Jaffa and Haifa. In 1999 he became a bishop and in 2000 an archbishop.
One should note that previously all Christian churches in Jerusalem were trying to elect as their heads people who were equally supported by Israel, Jordan and Palestine. That is why such elections have always been a serious diplomatic game.
The election of the new Armenian patriarch has violated this unwritten rule, as his candidacy was supported by Jordan and Palestine, but not Israel. The reason is quite clear. Manukyan has made a series of anti-Israeli statements and in 2013 condemned Israel for not recognizing the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The Israeli authorities are quite open about the fact that they see the election of Manukyan as a direct challenge and are worried about possible conflicts with the Armenian diaspora in Jerusalem.
By Pyotr Lyukimson. Exclusively to VK
