TURKEY: ANOTHER ARMENIAN CHURCH REOPENED
by Yigal Schleifer

EurasiaNet.org
June 20 2011
NY

The Hurriyet Daily News has a report about the reopening of a
long-closed Armenian church in the city of Diyarbakir, in southeastern
Turkey. From the article:

Hearkening back to Diyarbakır’s cosmopolitan past, diaspora Armenians
and clergy held a small service in a local church Saturday in what
many hope is a harbinger for a more multicultural future in the
southeastern city.

“The sounds of the call to prayer and church bells will mix here on
this land from now on,” Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir said following
the service at the restored Surp Giragos Church. “There were major
sorrows experienced in the past. We [condemn] the heartlessness of
those days in our hearts and we want a new start.”

The reopening of the Diyarbakir church comes in the wake of the higher
profile service last September at the Akdemar Church near the city of
Van (see this previous Eurasianet story and photo essay). While the
reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia remains seriously
stalled, it appears that a more grassroots kind of reconciliation
process is happening in eastern Anatolia, with local administration
trying to come to terms with the past.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress