RENOVATION OF HOLY CROSS CHURCH DOES NOT REFLECT ANKARA’S REAL ATTITUDE TOWARDS ARMENIANS

PanARMENIAN.Net
30.03.2007 16:37 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Congresswoman Diane Watson, a leading member of
the House Foreign Affairs Committee, today warned her colleagues not
to be misled by the Turkish government’s token efforts to use the
renovation of a single Armenian Church to obscure its longstanding
policy of destroying Armenian cultural heritage and denying the
Armenian Genocide. Executive Director of the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA) Aram Hamparian thanked Congresswoman
Watson, noting that it is clearly not an act of tolerance for Turkish
leaders to turn an ancient and sacred church, with profound religious
meaning for Armenians worldwide, into a secular museum, upon which
a cross is forbidden and within which prayer is prohibited. In her
letter to congressmen Watson says, "Turkish government is holding an
event to tout the rehabilitation of an Armenian Church. Unfortunately,
this event obscures the reality that hundreds of Christian Armenian
Churches in Turkey, some dating as far back as the 4th century, have
been neglected and even egregiously abused". "Armenia, which was the
first nation to adopt Christianity as a state religion in 301 A.D.,
has a remarkably rich history of ancient churches and Christian
artifacts. Sadly, the Turkish government – which still, against all
evidence, denies the Armenian Genocide – continues to actively pursue
the eradication of Armenian ancient monuments. It is a desperate
and malicious campaign, which began in 1915, to erase the Armenian
people’s physical and cultural existence in their historic homeland,
"Diane Watson says in her letter.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress