Church reopening in Turkey does little to reassure Armenians

Gayane Abrahamyan 3/30/07

Turkey's designation of a newly restored Armenian church as a museum has prompted debate in Armenia, with many observers characterizing the 10th century church's reopening as an empty PR gesture.

The Surb Khach (Holy Cross) Church on Akhtamar Island in eastern Turkey's Lake Van is the first Armenian church on Turkish territory that the Turkish government has restored. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive]. Many Armenians welcomed the two-year $1.9 million project, which preserved one of the most outstanding examples of medieval Armenian architecture. Others, however, have qualified Turkey's decision not to place a cross atop the church, and to maintain the church as a museum, as an insult to Armenia's Christian heritage.

"It's a slap in the face for us to have our church hung with Turkish flags, and, even more, with [first Turkish President Mustafa Kemal] Ataturk's portrait," Hayk Demoyan, director of the National Academy of Sciences' Armenian Genocide Museum-Institute, said about the March 29 reopening ceremony. "The restoration of the church is purely a political calculation by Turkey. It is obvious Turkey clearly aims at changing international public opinion in its favor." [For details, see the Eurasia Insight archive].

A governmental delegation from Armenia took part in the reopening ceremony, but ecclesiastical leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church declined an invitation, protesting the decision to turn the church into a museum. "The reconstruction is a positive fact, but turning the church into a museum is an act targeted against the pious Christian feelings of the Armenian nation by Turkey's authorities, and can't be perceived as a positive step toward the rapprochement of the Armenian and Turkish people," said Father Vahram, spokesperson for the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin.

Turkish Minister of Culture and Tourism Atilla Koç has stated that the absence of a cross from the church may be only temporary. "If it is proven that there was a cross atop of its dome, then the reconstructed [church] will also have a cross," the Turkish Daily News website reported Koç as saying. Reconstruction project coordinator Cahid Zeydanlini has said that a cross was not put on top of the church for fear of attracting a lightning strike, according to the website.

Koç earlier said that the Turkish government intends to restore eight mosques and eight Armenian churches in the vicinity of Kars, which was once the center of an ancient Armenian kingdom.

But the statements so far have done little to reassure Armenians. Officials in Yerevan have backed away from publicly presenting the church's reconstruction as a positive step in Armenian-Turkish relations. Foreign Affairs Minister Vartan Oskanian said that a positive move would be the reopening of the border between the two states, closed since 1993 in response to Armenia's support for the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, territory claimed by Turkish ally Azerbaijan. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

"The opening of the monument remains a separate fact and can't facilitate the improvement of the situation in the larger sense, contrary to their [Turkey's] attempts to represent it in that light," the foreign minister said at a recent press conference in Yerevan.

The fact that Armenia's government delegation had to travel 16 hours via Georgia to reach Van illustrates the "absurdity" of Turkish policy, he added. With an open border, the delegation could have made the trip in four hours from Yerevan.

Meanwhile, on the day of the church's reopening, a large-scale photo exhibition on Armenian churches that have been destroyed or turned into mosques in Turkey and Azerbaijan opened in Yerevan's State University.

Despite officials' harsh assessments, Samvel Karapetian, head of the non-governmental organization Research on Armenian Architecture said he was happy to see the church saved from decay. According to Karapetian, the church's reconstruction was done with a high degree of professionalism and in accordance with European standards. The church's popularity with tourists, a key income source for Turkey, was probably a motivating factor in the Turkish government's decision to undertake the restoration project, he added.

Manuel, a bishop and one of the most talented Armenian architects of his time, built the church in 915-921 A.D. at the order of Armenian King Gagik Artsruni. The exterior church is decorated with bas-reliefs made up of six friezes that depict stories from the Old and New Testaments, and also include pictures from secular life and rich floral and animal ornamentation.

Other Armenian churches on Turkish territory are in need of similar restoration, Karapetian said. "Unfortunately, preservation is not a usual practice in Turkey," said Karapetian. "Nothing has been left of [the monastery] Narekavank that was some five kilometers from Surb Khach, while some of the churches on the neighboring islands have been blown up."

A 1913 report by the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople stated that there were nearly 2,500 churches on the territory of the Ottoman Empire. Today, 2,000 are believed to have survived, many often half-ruined, or turned into mosques, storehouses and cattle sheds.

Editor's Note: Gayane Abrahamyan is a reporter for the English-language weekly Armenia Now in Yerevan.

Posted March 30, 2007 © Eurasianet