US embassy cable - 03ISTANBUL1025

C O N F I D E N T I A L ISTANBUL 001025 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 07/24/2013 
TAGS: PREL, AM, TK, Istanbul 
SUBJECT: ARMENIAN CHURCH POLITICS AND TURKEY-ARMENIA 
TENSIONS 
 
 
REF: ISTANBUL 399 
 
 
Classified By: Consul-General David Arnett for Reasons 1.5 (b & d). 
 
 
1. (SBU)  Armenian Patriarch Mesrob II advised the Ambassador 
during his July 16 farewell call that aggressive efforts by 
the Armenian Catholicos in Etchmiadzin to assert primacy over 
the Armenian community in Turkey could increase Turkish 
tensions on the Armenian issue in the coming months. 
Specifically, the Catholicos expects to complete work in 
October on a "constitution" for the Armenian Church that 
would claim that all unused or vacated church properties 
around the world should revert to Etchmiadzin.  Given the 
extreme sensitivity regarding properties owned by the 
minority religious communities in Turkey, Mesrob opined that 
such efforts would almost certainly feed nationalist 
suspicions regarding Armenian claims on Turkish property. 
While conceding that there would be serious questions about 
the legal validity of such a "constitution" for Armenian 
communities in countries around the world, Mesrob argued that 
at a minimum such claims would raise bilateral tensions 
between Ankara and Yerevan. 
 
 
2. (SBU)  Mesrob added that the "constitution" issue is 
merely the latest in a series of attempts by Etchmiadzin (and 
Yerevan) to assert its primacy over Armenian communities 
around the world, including those that fall under the 
Patriarchs of Istanbul, Silicia, and Jerusalem (reftel). 
Together these three Patriarchs have resisted these efforts, 
but their objections are unlikely to block the new 
constitution.  Mesrob also claimed that medals recently 
awarded to members of the local community by the Catholicos 
(without consulting the Istanbul Patriarchate) were further 
evidence of an attempt to assert its primacy and to divide 
the local community. 
 
 
3. (SBU)  Mesrob told the Ambassador that he had recently 
sent a letter to the Turkish Foreign Ministry to alert them 
to these efforts and warn of the increased tension that 
extraterritorial claims could impose on the Armenian issue. 
Mesrob admitted that he is worried the Ministry may not 
interpret his letter in the "good faith" in which it was 
intended.  In addition to a general warning, Mesrob said that 
he had used the letter as an opportunity to argue that the 
minorities in Turkey be given "legal status" in order to 
resist efforts by other elements of the Armenian Church to 
assert authority within the Armenian community in Turkey. 
 
 
4. (C) Comment: When it comes to the volatile issues of the 
Armenian "genocide" and Turkish-Armenian relations, the 
70,000-strong Armenian community in Turkey regularly finds 
itself caught between a rock (Armenia, the Armenian Orthodox 
Church, and the Armenian Diaspora) and a hard place (Turkey). 
 If Mesrob's description of the ongoing developments within 
the Armenian Church proves accurate, this issue could become 
yet another source of tension between Armenia and Turkey. 
ARNETT