There are mounting concerns in Armenia and among Armenians regarding a controversial land lease agreement in East Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter, with many fearing the issue goes well beyond just a commercial deal.

In 2021, a land leasing agreement was signed between the Armenian Patriarchate and a private company owned by a Jewish Australian investor for the area known as the Cows’ Garden, wrote Gaiane Yenokian in The New Arab.

Details of the contract only became known in 2023, causing apprehension among the Armenian community.

The 99-year lease agreement encompasses 11,500 m2 and is almost 25 percent of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem.

“Our concerns escalated when we discovered that the businessman who signed the contract has connections with Israeli extremist groups,” Hagop Djernazian, an active member of the Armenian community in Jerusalem, told The New Arab.

The Cows’ Garden is on the historic Mount Zion, in the southwest corner of Jerusalem’s Armenian Quarter.

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