CHURCH REOPENING IN TURKEY DOES LITTLE TO REASSURE ARMENIANS

EurasiaNet, NY
March 30 2007

Turkey’s designation of a newly restored Armenian church as a museum
has prompted debate in Armenia, with many observers characterizing
the 10th century church’s reopening as an empty PR gesture.

The Surb Khach (Holy Cross) Church on Akhtamar Island in eastern
Turkey’s Lake Van is the first Armenian church on Turkish territory
that the Turkish government has restored. [For background see the
Eurasia Insight archive]. Many Armenians welcomed the two-year $1.9
million project, which preserved one of the most outstanding examples
of medieval Armenian architecture. Others, however, have qualified
Turkey’s decision not to place a cross atop the church, and to maintain
the church as a museum, as an insult to Armenia’s Christian heritage.

"It’s a slap in the face for us to have our church hung with Turkish
flags, and, even more, with [first Turkish President Mustafa Kemal]
Ataturk’s portrait," Hayk Demoyan, director of the National Academy
of Sciences’ Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, said about the March
29 reopening ceremony. "The restoration of the church is purely a
political calculation by Turkey. It is obvious Turkey clearly aims
at changing international public opinion in its favor." [For details,
see the Eurasia Insight archive].

A governmental delegation from Armenia took part in the reopening
ceremony, but ecclesiastical leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church
declined an invitation, protesting the decision to turn the church
into a museum. "The reconstruction is a positive fact, but turning the
church into a museum is an act targeted against the pious Christian
feelings of the Armenian nation by Turkey’s authorities, and can’t be
perceived as a positive step toward the rapprochement of the Armenian
and Turkish people," said Father Vahram, spokesperson for the Mother
See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koc has stated that the
absence of a cross from the church may be only temporary. "If it is
proven that there was a cross atop of its dome, then the reconstructed
[church] will also have a cross," the Turkish Daily News website
reported Koc as saying. Reconstruction project coordinator Cahid
Zeydanlini has said that a cross was not put on top of the church
for fear of attracting a lightning strike, according to the website.

Koc earlier said that the Turkish government intends to restore
eight mosques and eight Armenian churches in the vicinity of Kars,
which was once the center of an ancient Armenian kingdom.

But the statements so far have done little to reassure Armenians.

Officials in Yerevan have backed away from publicly presenting the
church’s reconstruction as a positive step in Armenian-Turkish
relations. Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan Oskanian said that a
positive move would be the reopening of the border between the two
states, closed since 1993 in response to Armenia’s support for the
separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, territory claimed by Turkish
ally Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"The opening of the monument remains a separate fact and can’t
facilitate the improvement of the situation in the larger sense,
contrary to their [Turkey’s] attempts to represent it in that light,"
the foreign minister said at a recent press conference in Yerevan.

The fact that Armenia’s government delegation had to travel 16 hours
via Georgia to reach Van illustrates the "absurdity" of Turkish policy,
he added. With an open border, the delegation could have made the
trip in four hours from Yerevan.

Meanwhile, on the day of the church’s reopening, a large-scale photo
exhibition on Armenian churches that have been destroyed or turned into
mosques in Turkey and Azerbaijan opened in Yerevan’s State University.

Despite officials’ harsh assessments, Samvel Karapetian, head of
the non-governmental organization Research on Armenian Architecture
said he was happy to see the church saved from decay. According to
Karapetian, the church’s reconstruction was done with a high degree
of professionalism and in accordance with European standards. The
church’s popularity with tourists, a key income source for Turkey,
was probably a motivating factor in the Turkish government’s decision
to undertake the restoration project, he added.

Manuel, a bishop and one of the most talented Armenian architects of
his time, built the church in 915-921 A.D. at the order of Armenian
King Gagik Artsruni. The exterior church is decorated with bas-reliefs
made up of six friezes that depict stories from the Old and New
Testaments, and also include pictures from secular life and rich
floral and animal ornamentation.

Other Armenian churches on Turkish territory are in need of similar
restoration, Karapetian said. "Unfortunately, preservation is not a
usual practice in Turkey," said Karapetian. "Nothing has been left of
[the monastery] Narekavank that was some five kilometers from Surb
Khach, while some of the churches on the neighboring islands have
been blown up."

A 1913 report by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople stated
that there were nearly 2,500 churches on the territory of the Ottoman
Empire. Today, 2,000 are believed to have survived, many often
half-ruined, or turned into mosques, storehouses and cattle sheds.

Editor’s Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the English-language
weekly Armenia Now in Yerevan.