Peevish Pipsqueak

By Hagop Hagopian, Toronto, 24 June 2023

In the Jerusalem Armenian Patriarchate real estate scandal, the foci of the public’s abomination have been Patriarch Nourhan Manougian and Rev. Baret Yeretsian (now defrocked), director of the Patriarchate’s real estate office. But there’s a third member of the treacherous gang who has remained in the shadows. It’s Archbishop Sevan Gharibian. Although he is a signatory to the criminal “lease”, he has been spared approbation. He has evaded the heat of the scandal because he is in his mid-eighties, is hard-of-hearing, and some people have wanted to assume he was forced to sign the illegal lease.

The true face of Archbishop Gharibian was exposed in a June 23 interview with CNN’s Hadas Gold. The archbishop of falsely sage mien was betrayed by his words as lies, obfuscation, and evasion poured from his crotchety mouth. In other words, he did a good imitation of Patriarch Nourhan and the erstwhile Baret. Acknowledging that a deal had been struck for part of the Armenian Quarter, he claimed “they” were working to cancel it. Incidentally, although the grand sacristan for many years, his command of English is inadequate for the job. The Grand Sacristan is, sort of, foreign minister of the Patriarchate and has to be fluent in several languages, especially English. In Armenian, Grand Sacristan is “Tarkman” (translator).

This is what the “wise old man” said to the reporter:

“We have rented it to the other [?] company that is all. But about 99 years there. But we are doing our best to cancel it if we can.”

He said he did “not know” why the land was leased but defended the Patriarch’s silence in the matter.

He continued: “We don’t answer to every question, every talking. Let them talk. Later we will see who is right. Because those people also have their personal trouble with the Convent, you know they want something for some reason, revenge. I don’t know. The body is working about these things. Not everybody must know what they are doing. They will spoil it or destroy it what we are doing.”

There you have it: the eloquent archbishop defends his boss and says people who want to know the content of the criminal deal, which gave away one-fourth of the Armenian Quarter, are driven by self -interest. What about the whole Armenian nation which opposes the deal? Is it also driven by “self-interest”? Perhaps opposing the loss of precious Armenian land falls under the category of self-interest in the tone-deaf lexicon of “barab dagar” (empty barrel) archbishop.