Armenian church 'glad' for message

The Armenian Patriarchate in Turkey has welcomed a message of condolences by Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu over the killings of Armenians at the hands of Ottomans in 1915, just days before the ceremonies on April 24. 

?This is a pointed message, I am glad,? said Deputy Armenian Patriarch Archbishop Aram Ate?yan on April 21, recalling that the then-prime minister, President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an, delivered a similar message last year. 

?The message is an olive branch, just like the one last year, and it should not dry out,? Ate?yan told daily Hürriyet. 

The Armenian and Turkish people should find a common path, just as they did in the past, he said on the eve of a ceremony at the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul. 

?This will be a service for the Ottoman Armenians and all the people who lost their lives in that period,? he said. ?Our pain is common.?

The ceremonies will also include a visit to the cemetery where Sevag ?ahin Bal?kç?, a Turkish-Armenian who was murdered by a Turkish soldier in April 24, 2011, while he was on his compulsory military duty. 

April 24, the day Armenians commemorated the mass killings of their ancestors at the hands of the Ottoman Empire during World War I, will also be marked with a religious ceremony to be held by the Armenian Patriarchate, Davuto?lu said, while opposing efforts to describe the 1915 events as a genocide.

Davuto?lu issued a written statement on April 20 just four days before April 24 to express the condolences of the Turkish government and its people for the Ottoman Armenians who lost their lives during mass deportations and other privations. The first of such message was delivered last year by Erdo?an, who is now the president of Turkey.

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