Prince Charles visits Armenian church in London

PanARMENIAN.Net - Prince Charles condemned the destruction of the Deir-ez Zor Armenian Genocide Memorial during a visit to the St. Yeghiche Armenian Church in London.

Prince Charles visited the church as part of his efforts to raise international awareness about persecution of Christians in Middle East, among them Armenian communities, which have been impacted by unrest in Iraq and Syria, Horizon Weekly reports.

“It is literally heartbreaking to learn of the attacks on Christians and on the churches where they gather, such as the mindless, brutal destruction of the Armenian church in Deir ez-Zor earlier this year,” he said.

He praised those who’ve suffered for standing up to adversity: “I greatly admire the courage and faith of your flock who are an example to us all of faith quite literally under such grotesque and barbarous assault.”

Earlier this month, the Prince delivered a video message for the charity Aid to the Church in Need to launch their report into “Religious Freedom in the World.”

“The horrendous and heart-breaking events in Iraq and Syria have brought the subject of religious freedom and persecution to the forefront of the world’s news. It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East; an area where Christians have lived for 2,000 years, and across which Islam spread in 700AD, with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries,” he said at the time.

In December 2013, the Prince expressed concern about the current challenges facing Christians in some Middle-Eastern nations and visited the Coptic Orthodox Church Centre in Stevenage and the Syrian Orthodox Church in Acton to find out more.