Catholicos of All Armenians Garegin the Second will not be present at the opening ceremony of the Holy Cross Church on Agdamar island. The Press Office of the Holy Echmiadzin informed the PanARMENIAN.Net journalist that refusal from participation in the opening is explained by the fact that the restored church will be used as a museum and not as an acting church under the jurisdiction of Constantinople Patriarchy. "The opening of the Holy Cross Church will be held in accordance with secular canons and not the Regulations of the Armenian Apostolic Church, and that is why Echmiadzin will not participate in the ceremony," says the statement of the Holy Echmiadzin.

At the same time Holy Echmiadzin noted that actions of Turkish authorities is aimed against Christian feelings of Armenian nation and cannot be viewed as a positive step towards approaching Armenian and Turkish people.

Van Governor Mehmet Niyazi Tanılır sent an invitation to the Catholicos of All Armenians via RA MFA.

Currently 44 churches work under the jurisdiction of Constantinople Patriarchy of the Armenian Apostolic Church, most of which are in Istanbul. At the beginning of the 20th century three years prior to the Armenian Genocide the number of working churches in Turkey exceeded 3000. Now almost all of them are either destroyed or blown up.