Archbishop Karekin II Kazanjian, (May 18, 1927, Istanbul (Turkey) - March 10, 1998 İstanbul) was the 83rd Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople under the authority of the Catholicos of Armenia and of all Armenians. Archbishop Karekin was born Petros Kazancıyan in 1927 in Istanbul. Young Petros attended Levon Vartuhiyan School in Topkapı, İstanbul and then the Bezaziyan and Getronagan schools. In October 1940 he was accepted as a seminarian in the Patriarchal Seminary of the St. James Brotherhood in Jerusalem. Through his efforts, a beautiful Armenian church was built in Washington, DC. in 1962.