Dear all!

As you all have received the sad news, that in the morning of 11 November 2019, Fr. Hovsep Petoyan and his father Hanna Petoyan were violently murdered on their way from Hasakie to Der Zor, Syria, be the so called “ISIS” terrorists. Fr. Hovsep Petoyan was the parish priest of the Armenian Catholic community of Gamishli, Syria.

The inhumane assassins determinedly made the priest a target, who had been devotedly carrying out his priestly and benevolent mission amidst the turmoil of war and terroristic operations in the Republic of Syria, bringing the Word of God and the light of the Lord Jesus Christ to the people in need.

Fr. Hovsep was martyred on the sole ground of being a Christian, and especially, his belonging to the Universal Catholic Church. It appears, that in the XXI century, while the freedom of conscience, religion and opinion is being propagated throughout the world, an absolutely different reality stands before us. Today we mourn the death of a priest, who was martyred for the sake of his faith. He joined the 1,5 million Armenians who were martyred in the same Der Zor, in 1915.

Therefore, I beseech assistance from all our clerics, to start a common procedure to declare Fr. Hovsep Petoyan, who sacrificed his life for the Lord Jesus, a Martyr of the Universal Church!

Fr. Grigor Mkrtchyan

Parish Priest of the Armenian Catholic Cathedral of Holy Martyrs, Gyumri

Founder of Peace Voice TV

14 November, 2019