ARMENIAN DELEGATIONS ARRIVES FOR OPENING OF RESTORED CHURCH IN TURKEY

Anatolia News Agency, Turkey
March 28 2007

Van, 28 March: An Armenian delegation including senior state officials,
historians and architectural experts arrived in the eastern city of
Van to attend the inauguration of a 10th century Armenian church on
the small island of Akdamar, 3 kilometres off coast in Lake Van.

The delegation included Gagik Gyurdzhyan, deputy minister of culture,
and Avel Avedisyan, chairman of the Ethnographic Sciences at the
National Academy of Sciences of Armenia.

Built during the years 915-921 of pink sandstone, the Akdamar Church
underwent a restoration by the Turkish government between May 2005
and October 2006, and is set to open on Thursday [29 March].