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The RA NA Standing Committees on Defense and Security and on Health Care, in cooperation with the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem and the Homeland Defender’s Rehabilitation Center, developed a charity program within the framework of which 6 soldiers wounded during the 2020 war will leave for Jerusalem headed by the Chair of the Standing Committee on Health Care Narek Zeynalyan on May 26. The chief nurse of the Homeland Defender’s Rehabilitation Center will accompany them. The pilgrims will get acquainted with the history of the Patriarchate, the spiritual heritage, as well as they will visit the Holy Sites.

“Our soldiers who have served with boundless devotion to the homeland are the pillars of our country, they will keep the foundations of our statehood strong. In the Republic of Armenia, the power makes every effort to ensure the uninterrupted rehabilitation process of the wounded soldiers,” Andranik Kocharyan mentioned in the letter addressed to the Archbishop Nourhan Manougian, the Armenian Patriarch of Jerusalem. According to Andranik Kocharyan, the cooperation between the Patriarchate and the Committee will contribute to the strengthening of the spirit of the soldiers seriously wounded during the war, their recovery and the confidence building towards the future. It will also prepare fertile ground to implement spiritual goals of our people for the unification of the three pillars of the Armenian Church: the Mother See, Armenian Patriarchates of Jerusalem and Constantinople.

On May 23, the Chair of the Standing Committee on Defense and Security Andranik Kocharyan and the Chair of the Standing Committee on Health Care Narek Zeynalyan, the deputies Arpine Davoyan and Lusine Badalyan met with the first pilgrims.

Emphasizing the importance of the idea of pilgrimage, communication with spiritual values in Jerusalem, Narek Zeynalyan informed that the program will be continuous.

In the soldiers’ opinion, they will return from Jerusalem strengthened by faith, full of new plans and ideas for living.