Agence France Presse
March 25, 2010 Thursday 12:12 PM GMT

Turkey allows church service in gesture to Armenians

ankara, March 25 2010

Turkey is to allow members of its tiny Armenian minority to conduct
religious services once a year at an historic church in a gesture of
reconciliation, officials said on Thursday.

Armenians will be able to hold prayers at the 10th-century church in
the eastern Van region in September when they mark their Feast of the
Holy Cross, said provincial governor Munir Karaloglun.

A decision "has been made to open the church for worship symbolically
once a year," Karaloglu said on NTV television.

The permission was granted by the culture ministry, which runs the
church as a museum, following requests by leaders of the Armenian
community, he said.

The religious service will be open to a "limited number" of people and
its duration will be determined by the authorities, the governor’s
office said.

The Church of the Holy Cross, which sits on an island in the middle of
the Van Lake, served for centuries as a leading religious centre and
is valued as a prominent example of Armenian architecture from the
10th century.

Even though it is named after the prime symbol of Christianity, the
dome of the edifice lacks a cross since the authorities have so far
turned down Armenian appeals to erect one.

It was opened to visitors in 2007 after a 1.9-million-dollar
restoration, which Ankara hailed at a time as a step towards
reconciliation with neighbouring Armenia.

The church was abandoned after World War I when, Armenians claim, up
to 1.5 million of their kin perished at the hands of their Ottoman
rulers in what was a genocide.

Turkey’s Armenian minority, which numbers some 70,000 people, is
concentrated in Istanbul, where they run their own churches.

Following bridge-building talks to end decades of enmity, Turkey and
Armenia signed a landmark deal in October to establish diplomatic ties
and open their border.

But the process has already hit snags, with both sides accusing the
other of lacking commitment to the deal.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan added to the chill last week when
he threatened to expel Armenian nationals working illegaly in Turkey
if Western parliaments continued to pass resolutions accusing the
Ottoman Empire of genocide.

Turkey, the empire’s successor, fiercely rejects the genocide label,
arguing that thousands of Turks and Armenians were killed in civil
strife when Armenians rose up for independence in eastern Anatolia and
sided with invading Russian troops.