YEREVN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. The Anglican Church’s oldest newspaper The Church Times has reflected on the canonization of the Armenian Genocide victims. As reports “Armenpress”, the periodical particularly underscored: “In a ceremony that was described as "deeply moving", the Armenian Church last week canonised the 1.5 million victims of the 1915-23 genocide at the hands of the Ottomans.

The two Armenian Catholicoi (patriarchs) presided. The Western Armenian Catholicos of Cilicia, Aram I, spoke of the unusual procedure for the canonisation of 1.5 million people. The murdered ancestors of almost all living Armenians are regarded as martyrs and thus saints by acclaim rather than process.”

Previously it was reported that President Serzh Sargsyan, Chairman of the State Commission on Coordination of the Events for the Commemoration of the 100th Anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, attended the Canonization Service of the Armenian Genocide Martyrs in the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. During the service which was led by the Supreme Patriarch of All Armenians and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia, the Genocide martyrs were proclaimed saints of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, based on the Armenian ecclesiastical tradition and the resolution of the Bishops’ Synod.

The bells of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin heralded the launch of the Canonization ceremony of the Martyrs of the Armenian Genocide. Services are offered on 23 April from the Open Air Altar at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin. In addition to attending the event at the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, LIVESTREAM broadcast was introduced on screens in the Republic Square, Yerevan.