Armenians reopen Church in Diyarbakır

[arakeretzig]

http://www.mirrorspectator.com/2011/10/27/pilgrims-from-the-eastern-diocese-take-part-in-consecration-in-dikranakert/

I know it's old news, but worthwhile news.

Pilgrims from the Eastern Diocese Take Part In Consecration in Dikranakert

Posted on October 27, 2011 by Editor



The number of participants in the St. Giragos Church re-consecration service exceeded 2,000, with groups of Armenian pilgrims from Istanbul, the US, Armenia, Holland, Germany, Syria and Lebanon present.
DIARBEKIR, Turkey — Last week Archbishop Khajag Barsamian, Primate of the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America (Eastern), led a group of Diocesan leaders on a pilgrimage to the city of Diarbekir (Dikranakert), where they took part in the October 22 re-consecration of the historic St. Giragos Armenian Church
The group, which included the Diocese’s ecumenical director, Archbishop Vicken Aykazian, was scheduled to travel to the historic Armenian region of Van as well, but the earthquake in that region on Sunday afternoon caused a cancellation of those plans.
As reported shortly after news of the disaster broke, the pilgrims from the Eastern Diocese are safe and were unaffected by the earthquake. But in a telephone interview Sunday, Barsamian said, “After such a splendid [reconsecration] ceremony, our hearts were heavy when we learned of the earthquake, and our prayers go out to the victims and their families.”
The restoration and re-consecration of the St. Giragos Armenian Church was a major event in the region, with dignitaries and pilgrims from around the world participating. Constructed in the 16th century, St. Giragos is arguably one of the great sanctuaries of the worldwide Armenian Church. After years of abuse, the recent renovation project — to which a number of diaspora Armenians contributed — has restored it to its former glory.
The group of pilgrims from the Eastern Diocese arrived in Istanbul on Friday, October 21, and had dinner that evening with Archbishop Aram Ateshian, patriarchal vicar of the Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul, who warmly welcomed the group. Barsamian extended his thanks to Ateshian. On Saturday morning, the pilgrims traveled to Diarbekir (Dikranakert), and on their arrival at the local airport they were welcomed by members of the St. Giragos Armenian Church Parish Council. They proceeded to tour the Old City of Dikranakert — including the ancient St. Sarkis Armenian Church, located in the historic district.
Streets throughout Diarbekir were festooned with flags in Armenian, Turkish and Kurdish reading “Welcome home.” The sentiment throughout the city was festive, warm and welcoming.
The consecration of St. Giragos Armenian Church began at 5 p.m. Ateshian, Barsamian, Aykazian, Bishop Shahan Sarkisian (Primate of Aleppo) and Bishop Sahag Mashalian (from Istanbul) consecrated the five altars. Also present was the Very Rev. Haigazoun Najarian, formerly of the Eastern Diocese and currently the Pontifical Legate for Central Europe. The number of participants in the service exceeded 2,000, with groups of Armenian pilgrims from Istanbul, the US, Armenia, Holland, Germany, Syria and Lebanon present.
Among the dignitaries attending were the United States Consul General of Istanbul, Scott Kilner; the US Consul of Adana, Daria Darnell; the mayor of greater Diarbekir, Osman Baydemir; Abdullah Demirbas, mayor of the city’s Sur Ici section (the area “inside the walls” of the old fortified city) and Mayor Scott Avedisian of Warwick, RI — all of whom were interested in the service and supportive of the historic event.
At the conclusion of the service, the mayor of greater Diarbekir, Osman Baydemir, offered his warm welcome to the visitors — speaking first in Armenian, then in Kurdish, Turkish, English and Arabic. To the Armenian pilgrims he said, “Welcome to your home. You are not guests here; this is your home. Anytime you come here, you are coming to your home.”
“This is a happy and special day not only for you but also for us,” Baydemir continued. “We all know about past events, and our wish is that our children will celebrate together the coming achievements.” Baydemir’s remarks were frequently interrupted by applause, as those gathered were gratified to hear acknowledgement that the city is indeed an historic Armenian center.
A Day of Hope
Baydemir hosted a diner for the clergy and guests, where the US Consul General and the US Consul of Adana were also present.
Vartkes Ergun Ayik, chairman of the St. Giragos Church Parish Council, welcomed the visitors, thanked all those who had participated in the restoration project and invited Barsamian to offer some remarks.
The day’s achievement, said Barsamian, “represents many things to all of us. But most of all, perhaps, it is the result of the mutual recognition and respect of everyone involved, which has animated this project from the very beginning. That is a great reason to be hopeful, and it makes today, above all, a day of hope — a day to look to the future with optimism.”
“As pilgrims from America who have been blessed to be a part of this day, we share in that sense of optimism and hope,” he added. He closed by making presentations of the “St. Vartan Award” to Baydemir and Demirbas. Ateshian likewise expressed thanks to everyone and presented silver awards to both mayors and to the architect of the restoration project. Baydemir concluded the evening by characterizing the occasion as one not only for celebration, “but a day of expressing our apologies for the tragic events of the past. We want to see you come back here not only as tourists, but also as people coming back home.”
Sunday morning witnessed the celebration of the Armenian Divine Liturgy in the newly re-consecrated St. Giragos Church. Ateshian was the celebrant and homilist, and members of the Sts. Vartanantz Church choir from Ferikoy, Istanbul, sang the Komitas arrangement of the badarak. The service took place before another remarkably large gathering of the faithful, which included guest Armenian clergy, as well as the Syrian Orthodox bishop of Adiaben; the representative of Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople; mayors Baydemir and Demirbas, and the two American consuls.
To conclude the liturgy, the Armenian hokehankisd (requiem) service was performed for the deceased primates, pastors, altar servers and faithful of Dikranakert.
With the next day’s planned trip to Van (where the group of pilgrims was scheduled to visit the Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island) cancelled due to the earthquake, the Eastern Diocese group drove instead to visit the 17th-century St. Kevork Church in Derek, near Mardin. There they met the caretakers who faithfully care for the 300-year-oldBible and hymnal housed within the church. The pilgrims were welcomed by Eyyup Guven, author of a biography titled Kohar — the memoir of an Armenian Genocide survivor from the area.
During their visit the pilgrims were trailed by a sizeable group of local residents, eager to say that they were of Armenian origin.
The group was scheduled to fly to Istanbul on October 25 and to return to the United States later this weekh

[retro]

Re: Armenians reopen Church in Diyarbakır

Turkey’s Armenians Reconsecrate 16th Century Church Building

By Barbara G. Baker

Just hours before a deadly 7.2 earthquake struck Turkey’s southeast on Oct. 23, well over 3,000 visitors crowded into an ancient Armenian cathedral in nearby Diyarbakir for Sunday mass.

The mass was the first worship service in decades in the ancient St. Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church, which had fallen into serious disrepair in the early 1980s. Built 350 years ago and still the largest Armenian church building in the Middle East, it once served as the metropolitan cathedral of Diyarbakir.

In a private ceremony the following day, 10 ethnic Armenians who had been raised as Sunni Muslims were baptized as Christians in the restored sanctuary. All from one extended family, the Armenians returning to their faith said that their ancestors had converted to Islam during the Ottoman era (1299-1923).

“We have been ostracized by both Sunni Muslims and Armenians,” one of them told Hurriyet Daily News. “It is a very emotional moment for me, and I’m a bit upset, because unfortunately we do not belong to either side.”

For security reasons, the baptisms were closed to the press and outside visitors.

According to one source at Istanbul’s Armenian Patriarchate, it is estimated that at least 300,000 Armenian and Syriac Christians converted to either Sunni or Alawite Islam after 1915 to avoid forced deportation.

“This means there could be as many as a half million ethnic-background Christians in Turkey today who carry ID cards stating they are Muslims,” the cleric observed.

Over the past decade, both Armenian and Syrian Orthodox church centers in Turkey have quietly baptized individuals and families from the eastern regions of the country who had Muslim IDs but wished to return to their Christian roots.

“I wish this church had always been open,” one of the newly baptized Armenians told the online Massis Post website. “It is unbelievable to be together here with people from all around the world with whom I share the same origins.”

Although political dignitaries representing a number of foreign embassies attended the Oct. 23 mass, along with Armenian spiritual leaders from around the world, most of the congregation consisted of Armenian pilgrims from Armenia, the Netherlands, Germany, Syria, Lebanon and the United States.

“It was like they were returning from exile!” one Diyarbakir resident who attended the Sunday mass told Compass. “Here were these elderly Armenians who used to live here, walking through the streets of Diyarbakir, weeping and looking for their old homes and places they remembered. They all still spoke Turkish and Kurdish, as well as Armenian.”
Anatolia’s ‘Jerusalem’

Located in the city’s Gavur (Turkish for “infidel”) district, the newly restored St. Giragos cathedral is just a few minutes’ walk from St. Peter’s Chaldean Catholic church (also undergoing restoration), a mosque, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church and a synagogue, with construction plans for places of worship along the same street for Alawite and Yezidi (blending local Kurdish and Sufi Muslim beliefs) adherents.

“This is an historic enterprise,” declared Abdullah Demirtas, Diyarbakir Sur’s district mayor. “Diyarbakir will become Anatolia’s Jerusalem!”

Complete with seven altars and multiple arched columns in the sanctuary, St. Giragos was virtually abandoned after the massacre and deportation of its congregants in 1915. The building was confiscated during World War I as a headquarters for German army officers, used for a time as a stable, and later turned into a cotton warehouse in the 1960s.

According to Taraf newspaper columnist Markar Esayan, the church building was still intact until 1980, after which “because of hate … in modern times” it was attacked, looted and fell into disrepair, with just the walls and arched columns remaining.

“When I saw the condition of the church at that time, I thought it would never return to its former state,” Esayan wrote on Oct. 24.

Costing US$3.5 million, the church’s two-year restoration project was funded largely by Armenian donations from Istanbul and abroad, although a third of the costs were donated by the Diyarbakir municipality.

At the conclusion of the Sunday mass, Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir addressed the congregation, declaring first in Armenian, and then Kurdish, Turkish, English and Arabic: “Welcome to your home. You are not guests here; this is your home.”

“We all know about past events,” he said, pointedly referring to 1915, “and our wish is that our children will celebrate together the coming achievements.”

By raising private funding, the Armenian church has regained this ancient building for its own use as a consecrated sanctuary, rather than a Turkish government-controlled museum like the 10th century Akdamar Church in Van, where only one religious ceremony is permitted annually.

Although no Armenian community still exists in Diyarbakir, a priest has been named by the Armenian Patriarchate to conduct occasional worship services for visiting clergy and Christian groups within Turkey and from abroad.

According to Vartkes Ergun Ayik, a businessman of Armenian origin who spearheaded the project funding, the restored church property will also be used for classical music concerts and exhibitions in the city.

“Our expectations are good,” the new priest told Compass. “Even though Armenians are not living in the city today, we are praying that God will use our church to bless Diyarbakir in a very positive way.”

http://www.eurasiareview.com/12112011-turkey%E2%80%99s-armenians-reconsecrate-16th-century-church-building/

[bell-the-cat]

Re: Armenians reopen Church in Diyarbakır

The Istanbul Patriarchate couldn't even be bothered to send a priest to officiate in their newest church on the most important day in the Christian calendar. Despite that, there will still be plenty of Armenian fanatics out there that insist every inactive, derelict, or ruinous Armenian church in Turkey be returned to the Istanbul Patriarchate.


Easter Celebrated at Sourp Giragos in Diyarbakir
by Gulisor Akkum

http://www.armenianweekly.com/2013/03/31/easter-celebrated-at-sourp-giragos-in-diyarbakir-photos/

March 31, 2013

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.) Dozens of Armenians and their Muslim
neighbors gathered at the recently renovated Sourp Giragos Church in
Diyarbakir to celebrate Easter today.

As it proved difficult for the Istanbul Patriarchate to send a member
of the clergy to Diyarbakir on Easter Sunday, Kevork Fikri, an
intellectual who offers Armenian language courses in the city, was
asked to help with the celebrations.

Gafur Ohannes Türkay, a member of the Sourp Giragos Church Foundation
board of directors, said, `We requested a clergyman from the Istanbul
Patriarchate. Priests were unavailable on Easter day [as they were
holding Easter ceremonies in their respective parishes], so we were
going to have to celebrate Easter a week later.'

`The community, however, wanted to celebrate on Easter Sunday, which
is why we approached Kevork bey, who is not a clergyman but knows
Armenian liturgy well,' he noted.

Author Å?ehmuz Diken was among those taking part at the Easter
celebrations. `As a child, I use to come to this church with my family
on religious holidays,' he said. `We celebrated with the Armenians,
and they celebrated with us.'

`Most of our Armenian neighbors are not among us now,' said Diken.

He added, `In the 60s, on Easter Sunday, my father used to wake us up
early and say, `Bedo [Armenian singer Bedri Ayseli] has prepared eggs
and choregfor us!''

Many Islamized Armenians were among the participants in the Easter
celebrations at Sourp Giragos, the largest Armenian church in the
Middle East.

This report was filed by The Armenian Weekly's Diyarbakir
correspondent Gulisor Akkum. For more photos and coverage, visit our
Facebook page.