Armenian Christians celebrate rare Mass in Turkey

Hundreds of Armenian Christian pilgrims took boats to an ancient island church in eastern Turkey on Sunday for the first Mass held there since it was abandoned during the mass killings of Armenians 95 years ago.

In 2007, Turkey restored the 10th century Akdamar church perched on a rocky island in Lake Van — a vast body of water in eastern Turkey — and opened it up as a museum. Earlier this year, Turkey's Islamic-oriented government, which is aiming to expand freedoms as part of its bid to join the European Union, agreed to allow once-yearly worship as a gesture to Armenia and its own ethnic Armenian minority.

"This is a historic event," said Karapet Hajipogosyan, who traveled from Yerevan, Armenia for the service. "I am reliving our past, I am remembering what we went through. My feelings are mixed."

Turkey and Armenia are locked in a bitter dispute over the deaths of Armenians in Turkey. Historians estimate that up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks around the time of World War I. Turkey denies that the deaths constituted genocide, saying the toll has been inflated and those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Efforts to overcome historical animosity and normalize ties between the neighbors launched last year have been thrown back by the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the enclave of Nagorno-Karabakh. Azerbaijan is a close Muslim ally of Ankara.

Armenian Christians from Turkey, Armenia and Georgia traveled to the brown sandstone church for the first liturgy. Many others reportedly did not travel to protest the fact that a large cast iron cross was not mounted on top of the church as planned.

Turkish officials postponed installing the cross atop the church until after a nationwide referendum that was held last week, saying they wanted to avoid the symbolism attached to the cross being used as propaganda tool against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling party. The symbolism could upset some Muslims; and a parallel force, Turkey's secular establishment, led by the powerful military, might regard it as a concession to Armenia and the Armenian diaspora.

But officials again postponed putting up the cross after the referendum, citing technical difficulties.

The cross was mounted on a platform outside the church for Sunday's service, and many pilgrims at Akdamar kissed it or kneeled in front of it to pray. Some wept.

In 1915, Ottoman authorities evicted Armenians from their homes in actions that spiraled into the mass slaughter of the Armenian population. Scholars widely view the event as the first genocide of the 20th century.

Some pilgrims took part in the service inside the church, which is decorated with deep blue frescoes showing biblical scenes. Some, though, have been destroyed and the walls have big, blank patches.

Many others watched the service from a large screen on the church grounds.

"This is a very positive development," said Armen Aroyan, a retired electrical engineer from Los Angeles, California. "Turkey made a nice gesture making it available for Armenians to come here."
Akdamar, called the Church of Surp Khach, or the Holy Cross, was inaugurated in A.D. 921. historical records say the church was near a harbor and a palace on the island on Lake Van, but only the church survived.

One of the finest surviving monuments of Armenian culture 1,000 years ago, the church had deteriorated until its restoration at a cost of US$1.5 million (€1.15 million). Rainwater had seeped through the collapsed, conical dome. Its basalt floors were dug up by treasure-hunters, and its facade riddled with bullet holes.

Some of Turkey's 65,000 Armenian Orthodox Christians complain of harassment in Turkey, which has an overwhelmingly Muslim population.

Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian journalist murdered in Istanbul in 2007, was apparently targeted by nationalists for his commentaries on minority rights and freedom of expression.