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TURKEY: ARMENIAN CHURCH BELL IN DIYARBAKIR SOUNDED TODAY
ANSA Med
Nov 5 2012
Italy
For 1st time in 97 years, since Armenian genocide
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, NOVEMBER 5 - Almost a century after it was
demolished for overshadowing the minarets of the city's mosques, the
bell-tower of the Armenian church in Diyarbakir, a town in Turkish
Kurdistan, has been rebuilt and its bell sounded today for the first
time in 97 years, Hurriyet daily online reported on Monday.
The Surp Giragos church was damaged heavily in 1915, the year the
genocide of Armenians in Turkey began, a fact which Ankara does not
recognize to this day. The bell-tower was demolished because it was
taller than the minarets of nearby mosques. Today the deputy patriarch
for Turkey, Aram Atesay, celebrated the first Armenian rite in the
restored church before a congregation that also included brethren
who had traveled from Armenia, Canada and the US for the occasion,
Hurriyet wrote.
The restoration was financed by an Armenian foundation and by the
town of Diyarbakir, whose mayor is from the pro-Kurdish Peace and
Democracy Party (BDP). (ANSAmed).
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2012/11/05/Turkey-Armenian-church-bell-Diyarbakir-sounded-today_7744529.html
ANSA Med
Nov 5 2012
Italy
For 1st time in 97 years, since Armenian genocide
(ANSAmed) - ANKARA, NOVEMBER 5 - Almost a century after it was
demolished for overshadowing the minarets of the city's mosques, the
bell-tower of the Armenian church in Diyarbakir, a town in Turkish
Kurdistan, has been rebuilt and its bell sounded today for the first
time in 97 years, Hurriyet daily online reported on Monday.
The Surp Giragos church was damaged heavily in 1915, the year the
genocide of Armenians in Turkey began, a fact which Ankara does not
recognize to this day. The bell-tower was demolished because it was
taller than the minarets of nearby mosques. Today the deputy patriarch
for Turkey, Aram Atesay, celebrated the first Armenian rite in the
restored church before a congregation that also included brethren
who had traveled from Armenia, Canada and the US for the occasion,
Hurriyet wrote.
The restoration was financed by an Armenian foundation and by the
town of Diyarbakir, whose mayor is from the pro-Kurdish Peace and
Democracy Party (BDP). (ANSAmed).
http://www.ansamed.info/ansamed/en/news/sections/generalnews/2012/11/05/Turkey-Armenian-church-bell-Diyarbakir-sounded-today_7744529.html