Holy Cross church on Aghtamar island to operate as museum
08.08.2009 12:46 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Holy Cross Armenian church, recently restored in
Turkey, operates as a museum, Alexander Sotnichenko, leading analyst
of St. Petersburg Center for Middle East Studies, told a
PanARMENIAN.Net correspondent. Even if the church has a cross on its
cupola, that won’t change anything, the expert finds, because as far
as he is aware, there is now the Turkish flag fluttering there.
`Turkey’s actions are maneuvers for both the West and Russia,’ Russian
analyst said, noting in the meantime that Turkey conducts literate
information policy. `Turkey recently invited Russian and foreign
journalists to show them ancient Armenian monuments and prove that
there was allegedly no conflict between two nations. Besides, I don’t
think Turkey will mind if Aghtamar becomes a new tourist center,’
Russian expert noted.
Turkey just wants to show that it has respect for the ethnic groups
which formerly inhabited on its territory. But despite its
`reasonable’ political steps, it should perceive the difference
between restoring a church and opening a border.
`By normalizing ties with Armenia, Turkey seeks to increase its
influence in Caucasus,’ Russian analyst said, adding that Baku has
fears of Armenian-Turkish ties normalization process.
`Turkish-Azerbaijani relations are no longer as warm as they used to
be. In 1990’s, Turkish government had closer ties with Azerbaijan. But
now it acts against Azerbaijan’s interests, as it is more interested
in normalizing Armenian-Turkish ties.’
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
