It seems that the recent furor regarding the Sanahin Monastery just won't go away.

At a press conference today in Yerevan, Samvel Karapetyan, President of the Armenian Architectural Institute, stuck to his guns and confirmed that Catholicos Garegin II made the following statement regarding Sanahin – I have nothing to do with monasteries up in the mountains.

Karapetyan claims that Catholicos Garegin II made the statement during a 2006 meeting that he and Institute founder Armen Hakhnazaryan had with the Armenian Church leader. Hakhnazaryan has since passed away.

Samvel Karapetyan says that during the meeting the Catholicos mentioned the fact that 84 new churches and other objects were being built and that it was a bountiful year for construction.

Hakhnazaryan is then to have said that while such construction is understandable, especially in communities built in the Soviet period with no churches, he called on the Catholicos to pay attention to the plight of certain medieval monuments.

Hakhnazaryan then singled out Sanahin, saying, "There's a forest growing on the roof."

Karapetyan claims that Garegin II tensed up and responded, "I have nothing to do with monasteries up in the mountains."

According to Karapetyan, Garegin II added that, "I will not allow one stone to tumble from Khor Virap, Holy Etchmiadzin or Geghardavank." The Catholicos then repeated, "I have nothing to do with monasteries up in the mountains."

Also at the press conference was Father Vahram Melikyan, Information Coordinator for the Holy See.

The clergyman refuted that Garegin II ever uttered such words.

Father Melikyan noted that the Catholicos would have never used the term "object" to describe a religious site and the fact that Karapetyan definitely recalls the church leader using it casts doubts on the entire 2006 conversation.

The clergyman claimed that Catholicos Garegin II was merely talking about the priorities of the church regarding preservation at the time but that he never implied abandoning or neglecting some churches.