TURKEY: RE-OPENING OF HISTORIC ARMENIAN CHURCH HAILED AS GOODWILL GESTURE

AKI, Italy
March 29 2007

Van, eastern Turkey, 29 March (AKI) – The restored 1,000 year old
Amenian Akdamar Church re-opened in eastern Turkey on Thursday as a
museum, a move billed as an official goodwill gesture to improve ties
with the country’s neighbour and with it own ethnic community. "I
congratulate this project on its completion as a whole," said the
spiritual leader of Turkey’s Armenian community, Patriach Mesrob II,
quoted by daily Hurriyet.

Mesrob II attended the reopening at Akdamar Island on Van Lake,
together with Turkey’s culture and tourism minister Atilla Koc,
other Turkish officials and a 20-member Armenian delegation led by
culture minister Gagik Gyurijiyan, including churchmen, officials,
historians and experts, many belonging to the Armenian diaspora.

One remaining area of controversy however is the absence of a cross
atop the church.

Mesrob II called on the Turkish foreign ministry earlier this week to
re-install the cross in its original position. However, his request
was rejected by Turkish officials on the grounds that the Akdamar,
like the the Hagia Sofia mosque-church in Istanbul is now a museum
and no longer a place of worship open for religious ceremonies.

The culture ministry has spent nearly 1.85 million dollars over the
past year restoring the church which is considered one of Turkey’s
finest remaining Armenian masterpieces. The restoration of the church –
perched on a rocky island in a vast lake – have been portrayed as a
"positive message" by Turkey to help overcome historical animosity
between Turkey and Armenia, who are locked in a bitter dispute over
mass killings of Armenians by Ottoman Turks between 1915-1923.

Turkey has come under strong pressure from the United States and
from the European Union to accept the killings of Armenians around
the time of World War I as genocide.

Turkey does not have diplomatic ties with Armenia but Armenian
officials are among the 200 Armenians it invited from around the
world for the Akdamar’s reopening ceremony. Los Angeles-based Armenian
Archbishop Amoushegh Mardirossian and New York-based Archbishop Khajag
Baramian were among those attending, as well as various ambassadors,
MPs, and prominent members of Turkey’s Armenian community. Hundreds
of journalists, including many from the foreign press, were accredited
for the event.

The head of Armenia’a Apostolic Church Catholicos Karekin II declined
Turkey’s invitation to take part in the reopening ceremony. Karekin II
would not be attending the event because the church had been converted
into a museum, the church said a statement.

Gyurjian and the Armenian delegation arrived in Turkey on Wednesday
and visited historic sites in nearby cities. As the border between
Turkey and Armenia has been closed since 1993, the group had to enter
Turkey from Georgia instead of Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress