"It is very important and it gave me strength and support," Gulgulian said about his ordination in Erbil.
Gulgulian is the first head of the Armenian Orthodox Church in Iraq in over four decades.
Speaking also to Rudaw after his ordination in Baghdad last week, Gulgulian stressed his commitment to the Armenian Orthodox community's spiritual principles and values while calling for peace among all Iraqi religious and ethnic groups.
“After 42 years, it was the first time that an election took place, … because Iraq was facing some difficulties and there were not many candidates as well,” the bishop said last week.
The new bishop of Armenian Lebanese origin was elected among three other candidates to lead Iraq’s Armenian Orthodox community.
Until 2004, Basra was home to around 350 Armenian families. Today, fewer than 150 families still live there. Similarly, only three of the 120 families who used to live in Mosul remain in the city today, and the number of Armenians in Baghdad has plummeted from 6,000 to 500. This is all due to successive wars, instability, and violence against the ethnic minority group.
Armenians consider themselves as being prevented from exercising their rights and they have repeatedly called on the ruling authorities of Iraq to assign them a seat in parliament, like other minority groups already have.
Unlike other parts of Iraq, the Kurdistan Region has become a safe haven for Armenians and other minority groups who have fled displacement and violence in other parts of the country.
The constitution of the Kurdistan Region recognizes Armenians as an ethnic component, provides the right to mother-tongue education in the Armenian language, and reserves one seat in parliament for Armenians.
There are six Armenian churches in the Kurdistan Region - four in Duhok province, one in Erbil, and one in Kirkuk.
