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PRAYERS, PROTESTS AT CHURCH OPENING
By Zerin Elci
Independent Online, South Africa
March 29 2007
Akdamar - Turks and Armenians celebrated the re-opening of a 10th
century Armenian Christian church restored with Turkish state money
on Thursday in a ceremony they hope will herald a thaw in long-frozen
ties.
But some Armenians, including the country's top clergyman, spurned the
event because the Church of the Holy Cross, on a tiny island in Lake
Van in eastern Turkey, is not adorned with a cross and will function
as a museum, not as a place of worship.
Armenians also fear the event may be just a public relations exercise
aimed at softening international pressure on Turkey to own up to its
role in massacres of their countrymen in 1915.
Turkey denies claims the massacres amounted to a genocide. Flanked by
Turkish flags, Archbishop Mesrob Mutafyan, spiritual head of Turkey's
tiny surviving Armenian community, thanked Ankara for the $1,4-million
restoration, but asked that Armenians be allowed to pray once a year
at the site.
"Praying at such a historic church, a centre of our faith, would
have a positive effect on people's memory," he told about 350 people
attending the ceremony. They included representatives of the Armenian
government and the worldwide Armenian diaspora.
Turkish Culture Minister Attila Koc said Ankara would consider the
request. He also said he hoped the church would boost tourism to the
remote, mountainous region.
The church, commissioned by an Armenian king and completed in 921,
is shaped as a cross, decorated with stone reliefs depicting Biblical
scenes and topped by a conical roof. Snow-capped mountains tower
above it and the blue lake waters.
Some Armenians, whispering prayers, placed candles in the church. A
few wept with emotion. Officials removed some of the candles,
underlining Turkish sensitivities about expressions of religious
belief in officially secular buildings.
Armenia's Patriarch Garegin II boycotted the ceremony because of the
decision to make the site a museum.
"Such actions by the Turkish authorities are directed against the
Christian sentiments of the Armenian people and cannot be seen as
a positive step on the path to reconciliation of the Armenian and
Turkish peoples," the patriarchate said.
Muslim but secular Turkey, often criticised in the West for its
treatment of its Christian minorities, hopes the re-opening of the
church will improve its image, especially as the US Congress considers
whether to approve a resolution that would recognise the mass killings
of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
Ankara denies Ottoman Turkish forces committed a systematic genocide
and says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks
died in inter-ethnic fighting in that period.
The church on Akdamar island (Akhtamar to the Armenians) ceased to
be a place of worship during World War One, when many of Turkey's
ancient Armenian population suffered death or deportation in a tragedy
commemorated on April 24 every year.
The Armenian delegation took 16 hours to reach the site, barely 200
km (120 miles) from Yerevan, because Turkey's border with Armenia is
closed and they had to travel via Georgia.
"It would be very nice if the border were open. If the border stays
shut, tourism from Armenia cannot really take off," Armenia's Deputy
Culture Minister Gagik Gyurjyan said.
Some Armenians dismissed the church project as empty PR.
"(Turkey) is sending a message to the European Union: 'Aren't we
civilised, trying to restore good ties with Armenia', while for
domestic consumption they tell everyone: 'You do not need to worry,
there will be no cross (on the church)," said Armenia's Social Democrat
Hunchakian Party in Yerevan. - Reuters
Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan
By Zerin Elci
Independent Online, South Africa
March 29 2007
Akdamar - Turks and Armenians celebrated the re-opening of a 10th
century Armenian Christian church restored with Turkish state money
on Thursday in a ceremony they hope will herald a thaw in long-frozen
ties.
But some Armenians, including the country's top clergyman, spurned the
event because the Church of the Holy Cross, on a tiny island in Lake
Van in eastern Turkey, is not adorned with a cross and will function
as a museum, not as a place of worship.
Armenians also fear the event may be just a public relations exercise
aimed at softening international pressure on Turkey to own up to its
role in massacres of their countrymen in 1915.
Turkey denies claims the massacres amounted to a genocide. Flanked by
Turkish flags, Archbishop Mesrob Mutafyan, spiritual head of Turkey's
tiny surviving Armenian community, thanked Ankara for the $1,4-million
restoration, but asked that Armenians be allowed to pray once a year
at the site.
"Praying at such a historic church, a centre of our faith, would
have a positive effect on people's memory," he told about 350 people
attending the ceremony. They included representatives of the Armenian
government and the worldwide Armenian diaspora.
Turkish Culture Minister Attila Koc said Ankara would consider the
request. He also said he hoped the church would boost tourism to the
remote, mountainous region.
The church, commissioned by an Armenian king and completed in 921,
is shaped as a cross, decorated with stone reliefs depicting Biblical
scenes and topped by a conical roof. Snow-capped mountains tower
above it and the blue lake waters.
Some Armenians, whispering prayers, placed candles in the church. A
few wept with emotion. Officials removed some of the candles,
underlining Turkish sensitivities about expressions of religious
belief in officially secular buildings.
Armenia's Patriarch Garegin II boycotted the ceremony because of the
decision to make the site a museum.
"Such actions by the Turkish authorities are directed against the
Christian sentiments of the Armenian people and cannot be seen as
a positive step on the path to reconciliation of the Armenian and
Turkish peoples," the patriarchate said.
Muslim but secular Turkey, often criticised in the West for its
treatment of its Christian minorities, hopes the re-opening of the
church will improve its image, especially as the US Congress considers
whether to approve a resolution that would recognise the mass killings
of Armenians in 1915 as genocide.
Ankara denies Ottoman Turkish forces committed a systematic genocide
and says large numbers of both Christian Armenians and Muslim Turks
died in inter-ethnic fighting in that period.
The church on Akdamar island (Akhtamar to the Armenians) ceased to
be a place of worship during World War One, when many of Turkey's
ancient Armenian population suffered death or deportation in a tragedy
commemorated on April 24 every year.
The Armenian delegation took 16 hours to reach the site, barely 200
km (120 miles) from Yerevan, because Turkey's border with Armenia is
closed and they had to travel via Georgia.
"It would be very nice if the border were open. If the border stays
shut, tourism from Armenia cannot really take off," Armenia's Deputy
Culture Minister Gagik Gyurjyan said.
Some Armenians dismissed the church project as empty PR.
"(Turkey) is sending a message to the European Union: 'Aren't we
civilised, trying to restore good ties with Armenia', while for
domestic consumption they tell everyone: 'You do not need to worry,
there will be no cross (on the church)," said Armenia's Social Democrat
Hunchakian Party in Yerevan. - Reuters
Additional reporting by Hasmik Lazarian in Yerevan