`Museum is closing: Turkish police banned tourists to visit the muse

Panorama, Armenia
Sept 19 2010

`Museum is closing: Turkish police banned tourists to visit the museum

Holy Cross Church of Turkish city of Van hosts today after a century
of break a holy liturgy at 11.00 (Turkish time and 13.00 Yerevan
time). The liturgy will be served by proxy of Polis Patriarchate
Archbishop Aram Ateshyan. Panorama.am reporter tells from Van the
local authorities are well prepared to today’s ceremony; small
illustrated booklets are spread among the new arrivers in the airport;
the booklets cover the city and its symbols – the cat of Van and the
herring. But the information about the city, its origins and
historical facts are absolutely distorted.
The surroundings of the church were full of tourists; most of them
were Armenians from Diaspora – Istanbul, Los Angeles, Paris and other
European cities. Just at the entrance you’ll see a message saying
entrance to the museum costs 3 Turkish lira ($2).

The cross over which disputes were recorded is put near the church
door. The Armenians from Diaspora came near to the cross yesterday and
kissed it.
Then the police officers declared everybody should leave the church.

It’s worth reminding the Turkish authorities promised to fix the cross
on top of the church but in fact they didn’t keep their promise. The
mayor of Van declared the cross will be fixed after a month.

From: A. Papazian