Armenian Apostolic Holy Church The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin

On December 22, in the "Vache and Tamar Manukyan" Library of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, with the blessinsg of the Catholicos of All Armenians; a conference entitled "Religions as Guarantee of Peaceful Coexistence of Nations" was held, organized jointly by the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin and Relations and Culture Organization of the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran. 

The conference was opened by the welcome remarks by His Eminence Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, Director of the External Relations and Protocol Department of the Mother See and Mr. Abbas Badakhshan Zohouri,  Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Iran to Armenia.

In his welcoming remarks, Archbishop Nathan also conveyed the attendees the appreciation and best wishes of His Holiness Karekin II, Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians.

Following the remarks, lectures regarding the theme of the day were delivered by Ph.D. Pargev Barseghyan, Head of the Department of Religious Studies of Yerevan State University, ("Armenians in the social and cultural life of Iran (20-21st centuries)"); Ph.D. Mrs. Fariba Alasvand, member of the scientific staff of the Iranian Women and Family Research Center and the political council of the Women's Religious Studies School and the women's socio-cultural council, ("The role of women in the development of peaceful coexistence between followers of different religions"); Head of YSU Iranian Studies Chair, Ph.D., Associate Professor Vardan Voskanyan, (“Some Samples of Christian Terms of Iranian Origin in Armenian”) and Dr. Mrs. Ensiye Ghanazadeh ("Peaceful Coexistence of Religions in Iran").

During the second session of the conference, reports were presented by Dr. Seyyed Monzer Hakim, ("The social responsibility of faithful towards followers of other religions"); Varuzhan Geghamyan, lecturer of YSU Faculty of Oriental Studies ("The role of the Armenian Apostolic Church in the modern socio-cultural and political systems of the Middle East"); Dr. Javad Jafari ("The Importance of Religious Dialogue for Strengthening Peaceful Coexistence among Followers of Different Religions") and  Very Rev. Fr. Proto-Archimandrite Shahe Ananyan, Dean of the Gevorkian Theological Seminary and Vaskenian Theological Academy and Director of the Inter-Church Relations Department of the Mother See, ("Religious dialogue as a way to overcome conflicts").

At the conclusion, a general summary of the presented reports  and acceptance of the text of the statement was made.