A group of Armenians of Istanbul parishioners gathered outside the Armenian Patriarchate in Kumkapi to require a new patriarch is elected representative of the apostolic community.

For a statement to the press, Jaklin Çelik, demanded that the holding of elections to be enacted. Mesrob Mutafyan, who have not resigned, still in intensive care after being hit by Alzheimer’s disease in 2008, the Patriarch Aram Atesyan who supervises function.

The group filed a black wreath in front of the Patriarchate of Istanbul on which is inscribed the phrase “We want to choose our patriarch.”