YEREVAN, MAY 1, ARMENPRESS. Acting Patriarch Archbishop Aram Atesyan and the chairman of the synod of Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople Bishop Sahak Masalian on April 30 had a meeting with Governor of Istanbul Province Ali Yerlikaya at his office.

Atesyan and Masalian officially requested the Governor permission to initiate an election of a new patriarch.

Governor Yerlikaya offered condolences on the passing of Mesrob II and “vowed to provide the necessary response from Ankara in the shortest possible time,” according to the patriarchate’s press service.

The request must pass through the Turkish Ministry of Interior, which by law is authorized to permit or deny the holding of elections.

Earlier on April 30, nearly two months since the death of Patriarch Mesrob II, the synod of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople said it has made a decision to submit a request to the Governor of Istanbul asking permission to organize the election of a new patriarch.

Mesrob II died at the age of 62 on March 8. He was serving as patriarch since 1998. Since 2008, Mesrob II was hospitalized in a dementia-related coma. The incapacitation led to the synod electing Atesyan as acting patriarch in 2010.

Despite the Turkish-Armenian community’s requests to organize new elections, the Turkish government refused to allow it citing the 1863 Constitutional law that permits patriarchal elections only after the death of the patriarch.

Edited and translated by Stepan Kocharyan