AKHTAMAR MASS: LITURGY, BUT NO PEACE WITHOUT A CROSS AT LANDMARK RELIGIOUS SERVICE IN TURKEY
By Gayane Lazarian
ArmeniaNow
20.09.10 | 19:14
News
For the first time in nearly a century Armenian Christians have had
a religious service in a 10th-century church on the Lake Van island
of Akhtamar, in what now is eastern Turkey.
The September 19 Liturgy at the Surb Khach (Holy Cross) Church was
conducted by Archbishop Aram Ateshian, the Armenian Patriarchal Vicar
of Constantinople. Service went on, despite the absence of a cross
on the dome of the church – a holy indicator for all Armenian churches.
Turkish officials say they intend to install one, but haven’t managed
yet. Besides, the church is now (since a 2007 renovation) officially
a museum where on Friday, according to a CNN report, one Catholic
priest was politely stopped from chanting, saying that praying was
not allowed in museums.
The Etchmiadzin See of the Armenian Apostolic Church refused to send
its delegates to the event after learning that Turkish authorities
had failed to honor their pledge to install the Christian symbol
atop the building by the time of the liturgy. This also prompted
many Armenian Christians in Armenia and abroad to cancel their booked
trips to Turkey en masse.
Still, the Sunday event stood out by its significance to many who
were present.
For the first time since the genocide of these areas’ original Armenian
population by Ottoman Turks coincidental to World War I, Van Turkish
authorities allowed a one-off liturgy and the red-stone Armenian church
was again shrouded in the sounds of a liturgy and the scent of incense.
Among an estimated 6,700 visitors to the island, about a thousand
were Armenians who had arrived from different corners of the world –
Europe, the United States, Armenia, but mostly from Istanbul, which
still has a relatively large community of ethnic Armenians.
The pilgrims lit candles in the church yard, kissed the Surb Khach
(Holy Cross) walls and whispered prayers.
Turkish authorities have tried to show a positive change in their
policy towards religious and ethnic minorities in a bid to improve
the country’s international image and better its chances to join the
European Union.
The Akhtamar event has been widely viewed as one in a series of
similar public shows of a changing Turkey.
Another major impact that the church service in Akhtamar would have is
to build more cultural bridges between Turks and Armenians in Turkey
and Armenia, with which Ankara still has no diplomatic ties.
The internationally backed rapprochement between Turkey and Armenia
stalled in April after an apparent move by Turkey to set preconditions
before it ratified in parliament two signed protocols on normalization.
But the widely advertised event fell short of expectations as it
proceeded against the backdrop of a major row over the cross.
After completing a $1.5 million project on the restoration of the
Armenian church at Akhtamar the Turkish government gave it the status
of a museum, implying that religious services, prayers and lighting
candles would be inappropriate inside. Later, in what Ankara presented
as a gesture of goodwill, Turkey allowed an Armenian religious service
once a year – something that still left many Armenians dissatisfied.
Authorities in Turkey further said the original design of the church
did not allow for the installation of a heavy cross atop the building
and said installing it before the Sunday service would mean risking
damage to the dome. They said, though, the cross might be set up
afterwards.
“They shouldn’t be thinking that they are doing a big favor. Let
them say what they have done to the rest of our sacred places –
they’ve turned them into stables and cattle-sheds. And today they are
allowing this liturgy conducted in a church without a cross. This
is just another bait of Turkish diplomacy,” said Murad Keyan,
a German-Armenian with roots in Kharberd, now in Turkey, who had
arrived in Van days before the event at Akhtamar.
Similar views were expressed also by participants of an alternative
church mass organized by protesters at Tsitsernakaberd, a hilltop
complex in Yerevan perpetuating the memory of 1.5 million Armenians
killed in Genocide. Hundreds of Armenians attended the event in which
the Akhtamar service was called another publicity stunt attempted
by Turkey.
Meanwhile, scores of international media, as well as 25 Armenian and
about 150 Turkish reporters, were providing an extensive coverage
to the events at Akhtamar. But only a limited number of journalists
were actually allowed to go inside the church during the time of the
service proper.
Still, there was plenty to report about the goings-on outside the
church walls.
Among the Armenians who had arrived to attend the ceremonies were
also those living in Turkey who had converted to Islam. They said
they’d come to see their countrymen.
“During the massacres my grandfather was adopted and raised by Kurds.
My grandfather would say to us that we are Armenians by our roots.
Today, I’ve come here just to see Armenians,” says Farsanda, a
70-year-old living in Baghesh. “I married a Kurd, and so did my
sister. And recently I found my cousins now living in Armenia.”
Islamized Armenians from Mush — Tekim (Hayk), Daniel, Mashala,
Hayrentin (Serob) were distributing grapes to the guests in one part
of the island.
“Hayk and Serob are our Armenian names. We have brought the grapes from
the village of Monkonk, which is two kilometers from Mush, which was
an old Armenian village where vineyards had originally been planted
by Armenians. Help yourselves,” says Tekim.
The Moslem Armenian says that several years ago in the village of
Sasnashen in Armenia’s Talin region he found his relatives and now
visits them once a year.
Candles were on sale in the church yard. Armenians who were visiting
the island were picking up rocks from around the place, taking a
handful of earth and filling it into their bags, taking some water
from Lake Van and filling it in bottles – to take to their distant
homes overseas as a reminder of their forefathers’ land.
An information panel on the island says the Surb Khach Church was
built by King Gagik I. But it does not mention that he was an Armenian
king and that the church itself was built by a priest called Manuel
in 915-921 AD at the behest of Vaspurakan King Gagik I.
The booklets telling about Van also leave out such information,
presenting it as a city built by Kurds.
“It’s a tragedy. Who doesn’t know that this is an Armenian church,
built by Armenians? Authorities [in Turkey] should remove the status
of a museum from the church and its use by Armenians must be allowed
all the time. If not, then this is just another Turkish political
gimmick,” said Nuran Akayan from Istanbul, who has his ancestral
roots in Sebastia.
From: A. Papazian