Surp Giragos Opens to the Faithful
DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.)—Armenians from around the world flocked to Surp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir on Oct. 22 to attend both the consecration of the largest Armenian church in the Middle East and the Badarak held the following day.
They were greeted with welcome signs written in Armenian, and with Armenian music playing on the streets, cafes, and hotels in the city.
Renovated by the Surp Giragos Armenian Foundation, with the support of the local Kurdish-controlled municipality, the church, which had witnessed a century of destruction, neglect, and denial, now stood as defiant as ever to the forces suppressing freedom in Turkey. And as the faithful of different religions prayed in unison, the political message wasn’t lost on anyone.
Diyarbakir Mayor Osman Baydemir underlined the importance of confronting the past and seeking justice as part of the process of reconciliation and democratization. In an interview with the Weekly, the Kurdish politician said many view the renovation as an act asking for forgiveness. “You are not our guests. We are your guests,” stressed Baydemir, who heads the Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality.
“It’s a bittersweet return for the Armenian nation,” Raffi Hovannisian, the chairman of Armenia’s Heritage Party, told the Weekly. “Here, in this courtyard, you see the great potential and the depth of the loss we as a nation have registered.”
Scott Avedisian, the mayor of Warwick, R.I., who was invited by the Diyarbakir Municipality to attend the opening, concurred. “The faces of people who once worshipped here, were forced out, survived, and have now returned to their church, attest to the fact that they never lost hope and never lost faith,” he said. The renovation constitutes a “powerful message,” he added, as the church is finally “being used for the very purpose it was originally intended.”
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Osman Kavala, the president of “Anadolu Kultur,” an organization that promotes the art and culture of the region, said that “both the district and metropolitan municipalities provided full support for this project.”
“They are open to confronting the past and the responsibilities of the local population,” he said, and expressed his hope that one day the initiatives in Diyarbakir “will have an impact beyond the city, on the national policy.”
“Our grandparents, incited by others, committed wrongs,” Abdullah Demirbas, the mayor of the Sur Municipality in Diyarbakir, told the Weekly in an exclusive interview after the Badarak in Surp Giragos. “But we, their grandchildren, will not repeat them. Not only that, but we will also not allow others to repeat them.”
The challenge in Turkey, he added, is not only to renovate churches, but to renovate mentalities.
The Armenian Weekly will continue to publish in-depth coverage and interviews from Diyarbakir and Mush throughout the week.
Dr. Khatchig Mouradian
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Wow, I visited the church a few years back with Armen Aroyan group and never imagined
that it could be renovated so beautifully under present political conditions. What a shocking
surprise to see that church so gloriously metamorphosed condition. Praise the Lord.
Just Wonderful and very touching indeed … Thank you for your reporting Mouradian…
Praise the Lord indeed… I got goosebumps when I gazed at the pictures above.. it was absolutely magical…
what is more magical was the mayor of Diyarbekir.. a Kurd who admits the truth and is willing to make it right… there is hope…
Bari Yekak Dzer Tun@. WOW I have no words. God’s power is manifest clearly in this dark society. Our home, our church, our faith, our right to our forefathers’ lands.
Thanks to everybody who helped to this big project. First kudos to Bolsahays, then to Osman Baydemir, and everybody else who made donation to build this fantastic church. One more time they showed that ( iravunke chen dar, garnen).
God bless all of you all the times. Amen.
The LORD is watching and giving HIS Grace and Love with a BIG SMILE.
JESUS said whatever you saw you reap.
Bedros Zerdelian
What a waste of money and time
to renew something which will be
bombed once again…
I can’t see any future…
The days will prove what i say…
Real propaganda…
“Who is a builder…can never destroy
who is a destroyer…will do it once again”
So don’t be amazed…
Don’t call Jesus …
Don’t call God
No one of Ours
Could live there…
Can you tell me…
How many real Armenians are living there
To keep the place…?
My grandparents come from there
My grandmother use to say,
Our house is near the church…
And we still have lands there
With 40 pieces of official documents (tapoo)
Can they give us back
what they got by slaying and by force…???
Sylva-MD-Poetry
It’s so amazing to see this. Thank you for all those who took part, donated, made the posters and made this happen. God Bless you guys.. It kind of makes me sad though that in Turkey our churches are being repaired while in Armenia, they are neglected by the clergy. I hope Echmiadzin does something about out churches in Armenia..Well began is half done :)
Kecce Hay Azg@..
Dear Karen in India,
I wish you the best in yoiur studies.Hope you complete them soon and then follow up ,if not in India in some other country wherever they will grant you a scholarship(our Benevolent people) . If you have inclination to political science, then pick that up or similar. Now to what you have pin pointed. I tries that some 4/5 yrs ago when in Yerevan,i.e. held a few meetings with people who are historians, travel Agency experts, to try to convince them that my scheme of 1 3-Day Pilgrimage/Fair next to every(beginning with a few near Yerevan) Monasteries in danger of falling apart…wherein ,at those Fairs(well advertised by Travel/Tourist Agencies, -we have aplenty-) to bring tourists to celebrate Saint name Day and one Mass onkly by priest that St.Etchmiadzin would kindly send over.Nearby villageers bringing their fare,i.e., food and handicraft and sell there.Each paying like in ¨Vernissage¨ of Yerevan a daily Fee,then some 20% for the REPAIRS RENOVATION OF monastery…and rest indeed for the villagers…
Our Etchmiadzin church, mired in our Genocide and too, the nearly 80 years of the USSR communistic controls… has leaders who remain in set modes -rather than advancing as with so many religions have learned to progress, to lead. They have much to learn from religious brethren in the free world – who have been moving forward and leading our Armenian religious efforts – as was evident with the recent visit to the USA of his Holiness from Cilicia. Too, today, more comes to light with Archbishop Barsamian’s recent visit to our resurrected Cathedral in Dikrangerd…. A church leader – accompanied with business-oriented cohorts… whither goest this group – in Dikranagerd.
See how Armenians Are living in Turkey
Millions Turkified
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AIyxVwdOrns&feature=colike
Hi Sylva,
I was there for the opening. You are right. Not many Armenians are living there to keep the place. I don’t think it will be destroyed again, even though there is a possibility, but what I witnessed on that Sunday morning before the Badarak, thousands of people trying to get inside the church, and the amazing chorus of hundreds after that, singing Hayr Mer, just like it was during my childhood in Dikranagerd was worth every penny spent in restoration.
Michael Saroyan
Sylva´s ¨how many Armenians living inm turkey¨ and K.Mouradian´s powerfull message.
Yeah I just saw/heard on youtube what she had inserted up above and really felt bad,rather than sorry,for those wretched souls…
And thought what my grandfather and eldest uncle suffered on Death March…in the hands of those BEASTS-don´t find a better adjective…
My fight is to the end,regardless what TARC affiliated people or softened up Armenian compatriots(yes I still consider them as my compatriots ,just like those Sylva´s youtube described….) With only one difference THAT I SHALL NOT BEND,Like Monte Like thousands like him and in the past Murad,Antranik Gevork Chavoush and many others. This fight is to the end.If we show of weakness,they will bend us oveer.
Eh Avery, David and all others who are there like self and do not believe at all what they profess…
Waht can we do to alleviate the last perons´s PLEA?
Get really organzied and I don´t mean like the boys of latter day(the avengers) and /or the fedayees of yesteryear..No!!
I mean ECONOMIC POWER!!! our Diaspora(s) are capable of creating and EVERGROWING NATIONAL INVESTMENT TRUST FUND.ASK ME HOW…BUT PLEASE PUT ASIDE PALTRY ARMENIAN OLD TRAITS.NO I DO NOT WISH TO BE REFERRED TO AS LEADER OR ANY SUCH…I SUGGEST ONLY,GIVE THE SECRETS TO IT AND THEN YOU GUYS ORGANIZE IT….
FOR IF WE JUST BLA BLA AND WRITE HERE…DOING NOTHING,WE SHALL NOT BE ABLE TO HELP THEM AND SAVE THE LITTLE LEFT OVER THERE .NOT REALLY LITTLE PROBABLY OVER A MILLION,AS PER ABOVE YOUTUBE AND OTHERS SUCH AS THE ZAZAS,THE HEMSHENTSIS ETC.,ONLY WAY OUT IS HAVING A REORGANZIED DIASPORA WITH HEAD,I.E. A SUPREME COUNCIL WITH 5 DEPARTMENTS….AND ¨the fund¨
Hama Haigaggani SIRO,
Gaydzag Palandjian
A church without a flock of the faithful…what a sad paradox. One day 1,000 Armenians show up, the next day they are off on the retun to their home thosands of miles away. The moral of the story? The tie between these lands and Armenians is fading fast and probably severed forever. Go to Diyarbekir and the surrounding regions where Armenians once called home and see for yourselves. Will the readers of the Weekly ever return there? Will they even relocate to present-day Armenia? It’s an exercise in self-deception.
Rahageets, how sad that you accept the intended result of the Armenian genocide (the disconnect from the land) without hesitation. Or is it your intention to spread this propaganda of defeatism to Armenians? You are wrong friend. Armenians will gladly return to grow their country when they are given full economic and political freedom to do so. Even today plans are in the works to create cooperative enterprises with the Kurds of Diyarbekir. 100 years is merely a blink of the eye in the full scope of Armenian history. We know what is ours. We have not forgotten, Adana, Zeitun, Marash, Dikranagerd, Van, Ani, Ararat…
Bravo Vagharsh..
Your message is the POWERFULL one.It is disdainfull whar Rahageets writes,to say the least.As to Mr. Muradian´s,if it is meant to leave strong impression that our lands are calling us back and that we should MOBILIZE to do so ,fine.But if he means that we should -like in the past-depend on great Turkey´s bakhshish …then I oppose it.
WE can only depend on our own ECONOMIC POWER, indeed by the people and magnates to create my dream CHILD THE NATIONAL INVESTMENT TRUST FUND.FOR,without funds we cannot achieve anything!!!think about it please..
After reading so many sites…
i feel there are reason as many Armenians who are Turkified
And they want to have home and return to their faith, which is their church…
May be many Kurds have Armenian Blood
So they helped to repair the church…
Nothing arrives from emptiness
Now I changed my Mind …
There is reason for every thing…
Time will tell…
SP