Article
THE BIG SPLIT OF THE 20TH CENTURY (Part Eight of Twelve)
THIRTY YEARS OF UNITY COMMITTEE FOR NAUGHT

By Ara K. Yeretsian, M.D.

The two catholicoi operate two concurrent dioceses in North America. That's an anomaly waiting for a remedy.

In 1968, following a U.S. visit by Catholicos Vazken I, a bilateral "unity committee" was created, ostensibly to find a glue to bond the separated parts. It was made up of people selected independently by the Prelacy and the Diocese. The ARF and the AASO were in position to set the tone of the meetings and know everything that was going on.

After thirty years of half-hearted effort, the main result was that members of the committee were congenial, respectful and friendly toward each other. By 1997, the primate and the prelate were seen together in a number of public affairs. They even said nice things about each other. It was all heart-warming, but that's all that was accomplished. As subsequent events showed, there was no measurable change in the fundamental attitudes of the clergy, the AASO, the ARF or the public at large. Love was contrived and suspiciousness was the rule. The publication of "The Schism of Antelias" in 1997-8 suggests that at least some people at the Diocese believed Cilicia was not a valid interlocutor. Undoubtedly, the converse is also true. Here is a summary of the committee's failed efforts:

FIRST FAILED UNITY COMMITTEE ATTEMPT

In 1982 the Unity Committee came up with a plan whereby Cilicia would surrender all church activities to the Mother See. The prelacy's building was to be sold and the proceeds placed in a trust; interest income was to go to the See of Cilicia. If the Catholicos of Cilicia were to visit America, he would be received with proper respect.

A wealthy member of the AASO from the Detroit area disagreed. He sent a special delegation to Etchmiadzin, to convince the Catholicos of All Armenians to reject the proposal. He did not want any status given to Cilicia or any money going to Antelias. He succeeded. The near-certain reunification of the Diocese fizzled. What were his motives? Some say that, years before, he tried to mediate and that he was rebuffed in spite of the high respect he commanded in the entire community. If he could not bring peace, no one else could.


SECOND FAILED UNITY COMMITTEE ATTEMPT

By the mid-nineties, the committee came up with a plan that people on both sides said was fair and reasonable. Reunification of the Diocese was to be completed in time for the Diocese's 1998 centennial celebrations.

Between 1995 and 1997, the Prelacy gradually changed its disposition toward unity. Previously a strong advocate of unity, it began to hem and haw. There was foot-dragging, and ultimately the Prelacy desisted without any formal reasons - not even succinct explanations.

However, there are explanations: (1) There was a change of guard at the Catholicate of Cilicia, and the new Catholicos had a different perspective on issues. (2) The ARF was being assaulted on all fronts.

The ARF was licking its wounds from Ter-Petrossian's undemocratic blows late in 1994. Without due process, he threw party people in jail, closed down newspapers and declared the party illegal in Armenia. Ter-Petrossian claimed that the ARF was trying to topple the government. He accused the Tashnagsutiun of dealing drugs and other crimes for which his own minister of interior is now on trial. He then released confiscated data, which purportedly showed the ARF to be subversive and engaged in terrorism.

In America, the AASO celebrated, hoping that this would be the last chapter in the life of the ARF. Even the non-sectarian pluralistic Armenian Assembly could not contain its glee. Throughout that time, the opponents of the ARF said very little about egregious assaults on democracy - except, strangely, one Ramgavar newspaper; because the Armenian president had delegalized the ADL too.

Eventually, the ARF was completely exonerated and reinstated.

Ter-Petrossian's actions stemmed from the ARF's uncivil political manners. After a very poor showing in the first Armenian parliamentary election, Tashnagsagans waged an anti-government campaign worldwide to pressure Ter-Petrossian to bend to the ARF's ways. Its virulence shocked foes as well as supporters. The Tashnagsutiun said it was responding to Ter-Petrossian's overtures to Turkey and implied that he was a traitor. In 1993, they boycotted the Armenian embassy in Lebanon, giving hell to the Catholicos of Cilicia for blessing the tricolor atop the embassy. Tashnagsagans may never publicly own up to any wrong (they usually don't), but they know that they were victims of their own unrestrained arrogance.

Ter-Petrossian then nudged the election of the Catholicos of Cilicia to the throne of Etchmiadzin. Maybe he thought that the departure of the highly popular catholicos would constitute a coup de grace for the ARF. Maybe he thought the public, in its enthusiasm, would clamor for an immediate merger of the catholicates. Maybe he thought that, without the Catholicate of Cilicia, the ARF would be reduced to nothing.

The hope for a general clamor for the elimination of the Catholicate of Cilicia never materialized. A few of the catholicos's influential friends joined the frenzy to reunite the Diocese of America by 1998. They implied that Cilicia should get out of America ASAP and help the Diocese celebrate its centennial. They wanted Catholicos Karekin I acknowledged as the supreme head of the entire church. They also said Cilicia should surrender the dioceses of Iran and Greece back to Etchmiadzin. They implied that Antelias should recoil to the boundaries of 1929 and throw away all the work she had done for the Church of the 20th century without as much as an accolade. The general argument was: Armenia is independent, the situation is different, we need to rally around Etchmiadzin.

In their reasonable desire to elevate Etchmiadzin, the catholicos's friends failed to take into account the complexity of institutional, human and social dynamics. They were not alone; there was an army of old hats clamoring vociferously against Cilicia, many of them avid bashers of Karekin from his days at the prelacy and Catholicate of Cilicia.

In 1996, newly enthroned Catholicos Aram quickly got a taste of AASO-style unfriendliness, just one year after he became catholicos. He happened to be in the U.S. when the great benefactor Mr. Alex Manoogian died. Mr. Manoogian's name was a household word worldwide, including the Middle East, where he had done great benevolence. The catholicos wanted to attend his funeral. The Catholicos of All Armenians was on his way from Etchmiadzin. Catholicos Aram was flatly rebuffed. The answer was: "We don't want you." No one lifted a finger to correct this egregious act of unfriendliness -- neither the Primate, nor the Unity Committee.

In 1997, Catholicos Aram I pointed out that there are two catholicates in the Church, each with a catholicos. Since a catholicos is the highest in the hierarchy of the Church, and since there are two catholicoi, therefore there are two heads within the large body of the Armenian Church. Without saying it, he implied that there is no singular head at the very top of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

Catholicos Aram I's 1997 message was twofold: (1) the Church of Armenia is still in the making, so far as the structure of authority in the Church, and (2) Antelias will not be shoved down the drain just like that. He implied that until his catholicate is properly situated and empowered within the larger framework of the Church, expectations for unity anywhere were unrealistic.


A CRUEL PRODUCTION

Champions of the Diocese went berserk. Ugly diatribes appeared in newspapers, denigrating the catholicos. Who did the Catholicos of Cilicia think he was, to put himself on par with the Catholicos of All Armenians? How dare he challenge the supremacy of the Catholicos of All Armenians? A church with two heads? The catholicos talks with a forked tongue. The Church is not a pair of Siamese twins! The catholicos is systematically destroying Armenians' most important treasure - Etchmiadzin. How can he sleep at night? The catholicos is a selfish man who only thinks of himself. The Catholicate of Cilicia is illegitimate and schismatic anyway! Why don't these people go back to Cilicia?

In many ways, it seemed like 1956 revisited. The nail that shut the coffin of decency was when the Eastern Diocese unabashedly instructed clergy and parishes to officially boycott Aram I during his American pontifical visit of 1997. The Diocese refused to extend common courtesy to the catholicos.

Once again, the Diocese followed AASO politics: bring the ARF down by bashing the Catholicate of Cilicia and her catholicos; help the government of Armenia bring the ARF down; create hysteria about Antelias; make it seem like Antelias is endangering the standing, name, essence, significance, reputation, etc., of the Church, Etchmiadzin and, of course, the poor Diocese of America.

The Unity Committee officially disbanded. Instead of engaging in soul-searching and introspection, everyone agreed that the other side was wrong.

The Prelacy said: "Unity is not a priority."

The Eastern Diocese renewed its old marching order: "No more unity talks... The Prelacy does not exist... Koyutiun tchouni, vertchatsav al."

Some members of the Unity Committee turned into angry Sisyphean figures, and they almost clamored for blood. Some still do.

Today, it's Byzantium all over.

Without mutual admiration, peace and respect, even Crazy Glue could not have united the broken parts of the Diocese of America. The 50% Armenian Americans affiliated with the Diocese do not view the Prelacy in endearing terms. The converse is true about the other 50%. With so little kinship, why did anyone expect that a committee could reunify the Diocese of America in 1998?

Next week: The Cylinders of the Engine of Division.

Munster, IN