President Vahagn Khachaturyan Met with the Primate of the Western Diocese Archbishop Hovnan Derderian

BURBANK — President of the Republic of Armenia, Vahagn Khachaturyan, met with the Primate of the Western Diocese of the Armenian Apostolic church, Archbishop Hovnan Derderian.

Archbishop Derderian, welcoming the President’s visit, noted that the presence of high-ranking government officials at the Diocesan headquarters and, in general, the realization of opportunities for meetings with Diaspora organizations provides an additional impetus not only to strengthening business, spiritual, and simple human relations between the state of Armenia and the Diaspora, but also inspires Armenians living far from their homeland to further stimulate their activities.

“Your visit here is considered a visit to your home. This house of prayer is equally your house,” Archbishop Derderian noted in his speech. “With your visit, you represent the Motherland, and I am sure that in any place, any meeting where you have the opportunity and honor to greet the children of our nation, you will also fill everyone’s souls and essence with patriotism and will renew their vow of loyalty to the Motherland.

Our words should be only of gratitude for your visit. Our speech should also be a prayer for God to always bless you and all those people who do their utmost for our statehood, for our Motherland to remain strong, unwavering, and unbroken from all kinds of trials.

When faith guides us and true patriotism drives us in life, we must overcome all difficulties. It is the motto, mission, and goal of our life, and it should continue to be as a servant of the Armenian Church.

Through you, we address our prayer to all state personnel, to our Homleland’s authorities, so that they may remain strong and confident in their service, and our prayer for our nation.

The past years have not been easy; they have been full of trials, but the word of Christ, as well as the message of the Gospel, clearly tell us the following: through trials, we become stronger. Trials and difficulties have always been present, are here today, and will be tomorrow. However, this is not a reason for us to weaken; on the contrary, trials must become experiences that strengthen us and help us become even more united, one soul, one heart, one body, especially when our life, our service, our existence, and conscious life is for the Motherland.”

Expressing gratitude for the reception and “truthful words,” President Vahagn Khachaturyan said: “Your words are very important for all of us, as well as for our state in these difficult times. I share your point of view that, having really gone through the trials, we find the right way. Unfortunately, these trials have accumulated, especially after 2020, and have caused great difficulties, but we will gradually overcome them.

There is one important circumstance that I would like to talk about. The Armenian authorities have no problems with the church, and especially with the Armenian Apostolic Church. Neither today’s authorities, nor tomorrow’s, nor the day after tomorrow’s can have problems with the church. Everyone is aware of this because this is our history, and in this history, the Armenian Apostolic Church has always occupied its place and role, no matter what. Now we have statehood, and we rely on the church to make this statehood stronger, because this statehood needs a soul. We ask you to always lead us on the righteous path. Be sure that the path chosen by today’s government really leads to peace.

Our problem is very clear; we must be able to live with our neighbors, regardless of the problems we had in different historical periods. We cannot take Armenia and move it to another place, nor can we force them to move either. It is a historically formed environment, with which we have had problems for thousands of years, we have had wars, but in the end, we exist and we will continue to exist.”