ANKARA: Restored Armenian Church In Turkey To Be Reopened Thursday

RESTORED ARMENIAN CHURCH IN TURKEY TO BE REOPENED THURSDAY

Journal of Turkish Weekly, Turkey
March 29 2007

* Turkish experts spent one and a half years restoring the 10th
century church.

VAN – Ceremonies will be held Thursday to mark the reopening of a 10th
century Armenian church on an island in Lake Van in eastern Turkey.

The Akdamar Church, originally built between 915 and 921, was restored
by Turkish authorities, is located three kilometres off the coast of
Lake Van.

The ceremony will be attended by a large number of Turkish and foreign
dignitaries and the media.

Among those attending will be an Armenian delegation led by Gagik
Gyurjiyan, Armenia’s Deputy Minister of Culture, and Avel Avedisyan,
the chairman of the Ethnographic Sciences at the National Academy of
Sciences of Armenia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Emil Lazarian

“I should like to see any power of the world destroy this race, this small tribe of unimportant people, whose wars have all been fought and lost, whose structures have crumbled, literature is unread, music is unheard, and prayers are no more answered. Go ahead, destroy Armenia . See if you can do it. Send them into the desert without bread or water. Burn their homes and churches. Then see if they will not laugh, sing and pray again. For when two of them meet anywhere in the world, see if they will not create a New Armenia.” - WS