Rev. Krikor Aghabaloghlu: Visit to Toronto
God willing Rev. Krikor Aghabaloghlu from Turkey will be visiting us from August 18-25, 2006 as well as speaking at our annual Wesley Acres family conference which is the gathering of our sister churches from Montreal, New Jersey, and Virginia. Conference and evangelistic meeting details forthcoming.
Pastor Aghabaloghlu is a bold and fiery servant of the Lord who became an international hero among the Armenians as a result of his appearance on Turkish television. Rev. Krikor Aghabaloghlu, was invited to participate in a five-hour show on Turkish television to present “the Armenian point of view” in a discussion of the Armenian Genocide. A well-known activist, Pastor Aghabaloghlu has already been jailed once for challenging the confiscation of his church’s property by the Turkish government.
On the program, much to the surprise of both Hulki Jevizoglu, the host of the show,and his main guest, historian Mehmet Saray, Rev.Aghabaloghlu made it clear that there is no doubt a genocide was committed against the Armenians. It is reported that while the two Turks were in a state of disbelief, Pastor Aghabaloghlu went on to state that all Turks in Anatolia know the truth about the Armenian Genocide, although no one dared to talk about the subject and that anyone who had the courage to speak about it, is called a traitor, condemned by the media, taken to court, and sent to jail. He kept on insisting that, as a clergyman, he has the obligation to tell the truth, and refused to allow himself to be silenced. Undeterred, Rev.Aghabaloghlu said that he knew the facts first-hand from the experiences of his own family, and added that there is irrefutable evidence for the Genocide in hundreds of books in many languages and that everyone knew that the Armenians in Anatolia were the victims of Genocide. Adding insult to the injury of the Turks, he asked rhetorically, “What did happen to the Armenians inhabiting that region? Did they evaporate? Did they decide to migrate en masse? Are there any Armenians left in Anatolia?”
Rev.Aghabaloghlu was born in Arapkir in 1957. He studied in Arapkir and Malatia and, in 1979, he was graduated from the University of Istanbul, receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Education and majoring in the history of Turkey. He attended the Bitinia Bible School of Istanbul, from which he graduated. He was ordained as a pastor in 2002 of the Armenian Evangelical Church of Gedik Pasha where he continues to serve as pastor. He is married to Maria Semerji. They have a son and a daughter.