Gregoryen Ermeni Kilisesinde Patrik Seçiminin Krize Dönüşmesi ve Bunun Türk Basını İle Amerikan Belgelerine Yansıması (1944-1950)

Abstract

The death of the first Armenian Archbishop of Istanbul during the Republican era, Mesrob I Naroyan, in 1944 led to an unprecedented leadership crisis throughout the whole history of the Patriarchate of Istanbul, which was established in 1461 upon the orders of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II. Several international actors, including the main opposition candidate Bakhtiyarian to the locum tenens Archbishop Kevork Arslanian, were involved in the process when the latter refused to initiate the election process for the post of next Archbishop. As this period coincided with the beginnings of the Cold War, the Turkish government strove to solve the interim crisis within its boundaries, a process which started with the Prime Minister Şemsettin Gunaydin in 1949 and was finalized in the first months of the Democrat Party government. Finally, in December 1950, an unexpected candidate from South America, Karekin I Khachadourian, who was born in Trabzon, was elected as the 112th Archbishop of Istanbul. This study focuses on unfolding the events during this crisis period of almost seven years from a political history perspective with the help of American government documents and the leading Turkish papers of the time. This article also introduces the history of the Patriarchate of Istanbul before the Republican era with special reference to cornerstones of the Turkish-Armenian relations