In the following weeks, Vazken I was able to take the full measure of the support he enjoyed in AGBU circles, especially in Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina. In Paris, where the European Regional Board hosted a reception for him on 16 September 1960,50 he emphasized that Manoogian’s and the other AGBU officers’ “full cognizance” of their duties was a deep source of moral support for him in his mission. There can be no doubt that Vazken I returned to Armenia strengthened by the welcome he had received abroad and the support he had been extended by the AGBU leadership, and that he was now convinced that the dioceses of the Western hemisphere and Europe were not seriously threatened by the pressure from Antilias. That said, the two unfortunate experiences that the AGBU had had in Soviet Armenia when it attempted to carry out humanitarian programs there seem to have persuaded the Central Board to prioritize the Union’s relations with the Catholicosate of Echmiadzin and keep a safe distance from the Armenian Communist hierarchy. By limiting themselves to cultivating their relations with the Church, the AGBU leaders were also seeking, no doubt, not to alarm United States government officials, who kept a close eye on Ar¬menian affairs.
Coincidentally or not, in a speech at the fall 1960 Congress of the Armenian Communist Party, Yakov Zarobian, its First Secretary, served notice of his “positive assessment” of the activities of all three Armenian parties in the diaspora. Coming after three decades of virulent polemics, this shift in tone did much to revive the Republic’s relations with the diaspora.51 In the following years, a certain détente made itself felt–so much so that, by October 1963, Vazken judged that the time had come to reestablish contact with the Catholicos in Antilias. Read all
Catholicos Vazken I visiting New York with Alex Manoogian and the primates of the Armenian dioceses in the United States in May 1960 (Arch. AGBU/New York).
The AGBU and the Holy See in Echmiadzin