{"id":2836,"date":"2017-12-21T16:49:23","date_gmt":"2017-12-21T16:49:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2836"},"modified":"2017-12-22T13:13:13","modified_gmt":"2017-12-22T13:13:13","slug":"iconic-armenian-church-survives-war-but-not-plunder-in-turkey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2836","title":{"rendered":"Iconic Armenian church survives war but not plunder in Turkey"},"content":{"rendered":"

By MAHMUT BOZARSLAN*
\nAl Monitor<\/em><\/p>\n

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey \u2014 In the 1950s, the Turkish state returned the centuries-old Surp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir to the city\u2019s Armenian community, after having used it as a warehouse for years. Armenian writer Migirdic Margosyan, a native of Diyarbakir, describes how ironsmiths, carpenters, painters and goldsmiths from the city\u2019s \u201cInfidel Quarter\u201d joined hands to \u201crevive that wreck<\/a>\u201d and reopen it quickly to worship, keen to preserve \u201cthe legacy of their ancestors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Little could the volunteers have known then that the ordeal involving the largest Armenian church<\/a> in the Middle East was far from over. By the early 1980s, Surp Giragos was a church without a congregation as Diyarbakir\u2019s Armenians dwindled away. Abandoned to its fate, the church fell into decay. When a new restoration<\/a> began in 2008, only its walls were standing, with the windows broken, the roof collapsed and the interiors filled with soil.<\/p>\n

During the three-year restoration<\/a>, every corner of the church was meticulously repaired. An expert craftsman \u2014 one of only three left in Turkey \u2014 was brought to Diyarbakir and worked for half a year to renovate and complete the seven altars. The overhaul was crowned with a new church bell<\/a>, brought from Russia. As services resumed<\/a>, the church became a meeting point for Armenians \u2014 natives of Diyarbakir but now scattered across the world \u2014 and an attraction for tourists visiting the city.<\/p>\n

This new atmosphere, however, was short-lived. In the fall off 2015, security forces cracked down on urban militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party, who had entrenched themselves behind ditches and barricades in residential areas in Sur<\/a>, the ancient heart of Diyarbakir, where the church is nestled. Only months before the clashes erupted, UNESCO had put Sur on its World Heritage list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The militants used the church as an emplacement and infirmary to treat their wounded, as evidenced by the medical waste found later inside. As the security forces advanced, the militants left the church, and this time the security forces used it. After the monthslong clashes<\/a>, the church emerged with its yard walls ruined and riddled with bullets. Still, the Armenian community took solace in the fact that the church itself was standing. The authorities promised to repair the church and return it to the community.<\/p>\n

The church was presumed to be under protection since the area remained sealed off even after the clashes ended<\/a> in March 2016. Since then, however, the church has become the target of thieves<\/a>, who broke in twice and stole various objects. How the thieves managed to sneak in remains a mystery, for even members of the church board need official permission to enter.<\/p>\n

Most recently, a more malicious intruder \u2014 or intruders \u2014 broke into the church, apparently with a sledgehammer that was used to smash altars and reliefs. Armen Demirciyan, who used to work as a caretaker at Surp Giragos, said the news of plunder and desecration<\/a> \u201ccut him to the bone.\u201d<\/p>\n

He told Al-Monitor, \u201cWe had one place here and it is now gone. I am devastated. We had so many valuable things \u2014 they are all gone. We had an antique rifle \u2014 they have stolen it. They have broken the altars and stolen the books. In short, the place has been ravaged.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Demirciyan, the loss is not only about a church, but also about a meeting point for a community scattered<\/a> across the world. \u201cWe worked so hard to restore it and now all our efforts have gone down the drain. It was a place that brought us [Armenians] together,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

After news of the latest assault, Aram Atesyan, the Istanbul-based acting patriarch of Turkey\u2019s Armenian community, flew to Diyarbakir in late November to inspect the damage<\/a>. Visibly shaken after the visit, he said, \u201cThey have broken everything with a sledgehammer. It had taken three years to make those handmade ornaments. The altars are all broken to pieces.\u201d What was ravaged, he stressed, is not solely an Armenian house of worship but a historical monument that belongs to Turkey. \u201cThose monuments are the riches of the entire country,\u201d he said. \u201cThis place does not belong only to us \u2014 it belongs to this state and these lands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gaffur Turkay, a member of the church board and a resident of Diyarbakir, witnessed how the church fell into decay in the 1980s and then was reborn half a decade ago. \u201cWe were so moved, so full of hope after we brought the church \u2026 back into magnificent shape. We would go there every day just to sit and take care of it,\u201d he told Al-Monitor.<\/p>\n

Turkay was among those who inspected the damage after the clashes. \u201cThe church was on its feet. At least its basic elements \u2014 the walls, the roof and the tower bell \u2014 were intact,\u201d he said. Despite some damage in the interior, the board was content that the edifice survived the clashes in much better shape than the Armenian Catholic Church and several mosques nearby, he noted.<\/p>\n

Turkay said that as the uncertainty in Sur dragged on and the area remained off-limits to residents, \u201cWe got permissions from time to time to check on the church. In the past three or four months, we began to discover new damage each time we visited the church. We informed the authorities several times and asked them to find a solution but, unfortunately, the rings of the columns were ripped off first and then the altars were shattered with hammers. All figurines, reliefs, paintings and other materials were ransacked.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Turkay, the fact that hammer-wielding vandals could enter and damage the house of worship while members of the church board could only go there after receiving permission permission is a bitter pill to swallow.<\/p>\n

Journalists, for instance, need permissions from various institutions in both Diyarbakir and Ankara to take pictures or film inside Surp Giragos, and sometimes even those permissions are not enough. Last year, this reporter witnessed how policemen standing on guard at the corner of the church turned away a foreign television crew, although it had obtained permission to film in the area. Curiously, the intruders are able to elude the security measures.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnly construction workers can enter [Sur]. A very limited number of people can go and they are all under the control of the authorities,\u201d Turkay said. \u201cIf this beautiful structure is going to be missing something else each time we go, this is a very serious problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Mahmut Bozarslan is based in Diyarbakir, the central city of Turkey\u2019s mainly Kurdish southeast. A journalist since 1996, he has worked for the mass-circulation daily Sabah, the NTV news channel, Al Jazeera Turk and Agence France-Presse (AFP), covering the many aspects of the Kurdish question, as well as the local economy and women\u2019s and refugee issues. He has frequently reported also from Iraqi Kurdistan.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MAHMUT BOZARSLAN* Al Monitor DIYARBAKIR, Turkey \u2014 In the 1950s, the Turkish state returned the centuries-old Surp Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir to the [more >>>]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2837,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-turkey","category-turkey-minority-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2836"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2838,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2836\/revisions\/2838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}