News account of press conference by Catholicos Vazgen I in Los Angeles
During a news conference in Los Angeles on Tuesday, Nov. 10, His Holiness Catholicos Vazgen I belittled reports of dangerous pollution in Soviet Armenia, saying they were “exaggerations” and even “incorrect.” He then hedged his statements, saying he had spoken with government officials in Armenia about the problem.
“In almost every city there is air pollution, more or less. Yerevan, too, has some pollution, but to say that breathing and living there causes difficulties, that is not true. A resident there does not feel it, does not notice it, therefore it is not a catastrophic situation. That is an exaggeration and even incorrect.”
The Catholicos of All Armenians blamed most of the pollution on automobile exhausts, saying that 50% of air pollution was caused by the increased use of automobiles. “I have spoken with government officials, and they are concerned about it. There is some talk of removing some of the factories, but that there is a health hazard to the people, that is wrong.”
Asked if he read Soviet Armenia’s Grakan Tert or Soviet Armenia newspapers where the reports about the increased health hazard for the population of the republic were exposed, the religious leader replied, “Sometimes, yes.” The Catholicos adamantly said he did not know about the Armenian intellectuals and scientists who had first brought attention to the danger over a year ago. “I don’t know what they say,” His Holiness said.
[…]
The religious leader was asked pointblank why doesn’t the Catholicos of All Armenians join his voice to those who call for the reunification of Karabagh to Soviet Armenia?
His Holiness replied that those were “political issues outside the limits of our activities.” Doggedly, the questioner pursued the issue asking if the Catholicos did not feel any moral obligation to bring the church’s voice to help reunify a portion of Armenia’s historic homeland?
“There is no such movement,” the Catholicos said. “There are groupings, and intellectuals who have issued such requests before. This is not the first.”
The meeting with the press conference was Primate Archbishop Vatche Hovsepian of the Western Diocese and Archbishop Nersess Bozabalian, Chancellor of the Mother See of Etchmiadzin.
[Asbarez, November 4, 1987]
The Karabagh File, Documents and Facts, 1918-1988, First Edition, Cambridge Toronto 1988, by the ZORYAN INSTITUTE, edited by: Gerard J. LIBARIDIAN, pp. 69-70.
Image – Catholicos Vazgen I meets with President Bush, February 9, 1989
