Armenian patriarch under treatment in Istanbul

Officials said the patriarch was recovering in an Armenian hospital in the Zeytinburnu district of Istanbul after suffering broken bones and other injuries in the traffic accident.

"Examinations showed the patriarch’s tibia in his right leg and his nose were broken. There is no condition that threatens his life," the hospital’s chief doctor Armenak Mezaduryan said in a statement. Ten other people were also being treated for injuries at Istanbul’s Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital, Mezaduryan said.

Mesrob is patriarch for some 50,000 Armenians, the Largest Christian minority in predominantly Muslim Turkey.