Tweet
ARMENIANS IN TURKEY CONVERT BACK TO CHRISTIANITY
yerkir.am
15:00 - 28.10.2011
A group of Armenians, raised as Sunni Muslims, were baptized on
Sunday, as Armenian Orthodox Christians in the Church of S. Giragos
(Surp Giragos), in the South-Eastern province of Dyarbakir. The church
was reopened on 22 October after two years of restoration work. The
group that was baptized were of Armenian origin, and their ancestors
had been converted after the Genocide of 1915.
There were guests from Armenia and the United States, including the
American Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone and the former
Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovhannesian, as well as Archbishop
Vicken Ayvazian, of the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of America. The
restoration was funded by the Armenians of Istanbul and the diaspora.
The main sponsors of the initiative were Vartkes Ergun Ayık, a
businessman of Armenian origin from Dyarbakir and Raffi Bedrosyan,
a former citizen of Istanbul who now lives in Canada.
"We had over 2600 churches and monasteries in Anatolia in the past.
Unfortunately, only a handful of sacred places remain. My request to
Turkey, as a spiritual leader, is that the churches be returned to the
Armenian community, better if they are used for religious services
rather than museums." Ayavzian said to have been born in Turkey,
in the South-Eastern province of Å~^ırnak and speaks fluent Turkish.
yerkir.am
15:00 - 28.10.2011
A group of Armenians, raised as Sunni Muslims, were baptized on
Sunday, as Armenian Orthodox Christians in the Church of S. Giragos
(Surp Giragos), in the South-Eastern province of Dyarbakir. The church
was reopened on 22 October after two years of restoration work. The
group that was baptized were of Armenian origin, and their ancestors
had been converted after the Genocide of 1915.
There were guests from Armenia and the United States, including the
American Ambassador to Turkey, Francis Ricciardone and the former
Armenian Foreign Minister Raffi Hovhannesian, as well as Archbishop
Vicken Ayvazian, of the Armenian Orthodox Diocese of America. The
restoration was funded by the Armenians of Istanbul and the diaspora.
The main sponsors of the initiative were Vartkes Ergun Ayık, a
businessman of Armenian origin from Dyarbakir and Raffi Bedrosyan,
a former citizen of Istanbul who now lives in Canada.
"We had over 2600 churches and monasteries in Anatolia in the past.
Unfortunately, only a handful of sacred places remain. My request to
Turkey, as a spiritual leader, is that the churches be returned to the
Armenian community, better if they are used for religious services
rather than museums." Ayavzian said to have been born in Turkey,
in the South-Eastern province of Å~^ırnak and speaks fluent Turkish.