YEREVAN, DECEMBER 1, ARMENPRESS. Before leaving for the airport to board his flight back to Rome at the end of his visit to Turkey, Pope Francis paid a visit to the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Mesrob Mutafian, who is seriously ill at the Holy Saviour Armenian hospital in Istanbul. “Armenpress” reports about this citing the Vatican Radio.

In July 2008, it was announced that Mesrob Mutafyan was suffering from Alzheimer's disease and has since withdrawn from all his duties and from public life; however he still officially remains patriarch and archbishop. Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, who is from Diyarbakır, is running the day-to-day affairs of the Patriarchate after being appointed as Patriarchal Vicar of Constantinople with 25 of the 26 members of the Religious Council voting for him.

An official communiqué confirmed on January 14, 2011 that the Patriarch was suffering from Frontal temporal degenerative dementia, and that his physical and mental situation had deteriorated very rapidly.