Prelate Urges U.S.-Armenian Cultural Blend

His Holiness Karekin II, the highest-ranking Armenian religious leader outside the Soviet Union, stood in the heart of one of Los Angeles’ most thoroughly ethnic enclaves Wednesday and challenged young Armenian immigrants to forge a new identity that melds the best of American and Armenian cultures.

On the campus of Alex Pilibos Armenian School in Hollywood--against a backdrop of Armenian restaurants, bakeries and mini-malls--the spiritual leader, who is based in Lebanon, urged the students to read the works of America’s founding fathers.

“You will see them as men of vision who were able to convert a land into a truly great nation,” he told the gathering of more than 500 students, parents and faculty members. “You can become good American citizens without forsaking your Armenian roots.”

The private school, with grades kindergarten through 12th, is the largest Armenian school in California. Many of its 750 students are recent arrivals from Soviet Armenia and have never lived outside a tight-knit Armenian community.

Of the 300,000 Armenians living in Southern California, about 40,000 are in the neighborhood surrounding the school.

Mannik Khatchatrian, 17, a senior and student body president, likened Karekin--leader of the Cilician branch of the Armenian Apostolic Church--to an Armenian Pope.

“He’s the spiritual leader, but more than that, he is the bond of the Armenian diaspora. He represents our cause, our existence.”

Karekin’s monthlong pontifical tour of California, his first official visit to the United States in four years, comes at a critical time for Armenians worldwide. Months of street protests and strikes by Soviet Armenians in the capital city of Yerevan--the largest demonstrations in Soviet history--have tested the bounds of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of glasnost, or openness.

The protests have grown out of a decades-long dispute between Armenia and Soviet Azerbaijan over territories that once were part of ancient Armenia, but now are attached to Azerbaijan. Glasnost has served to embolden the protesters.

Karekin, 56, whose visit here was preceded by an 11-day stay in Moscow, said the Soviet Union has made real strides in the last year in human rights and tolerance for religion, but he remains firmly behind the protesters.

“My visit here is not political,” he said. “But I am behind the expression of the will of the people if it is done in a dignified manner, which so far has been the case.”

Karekin’s visit to the Hollywood school was a curious scene. He arrived shortly after 1 p.m. in a blue Rolls-Royce, wearing the headdress and black flowing robe of the Armenian Apostolic Church.

He was met at the school gate by two students holding out freshly baked round bread and a cup of salt. After blessing both, the religious leader made his way past lines of younger students dressed in traditional Armenian garb. He walked on a royal red carpet as the youngest students threw flower petals at his feet.

After an hourlong program of Armenian music and dance by the students, Karekin received an honorary diploma.

The program was followed by a lunch that reflected the American theme of his speech: The former New York-based prelate, footlong hotdog in hand, spread his own condiments--mustard, relish and onions.