Armenian Culture and History Museum to Open in Diyarbakir

DIYARBAKIR, Turkey (A.W.)—The “Armenian Culture, Art, and History” section of the Diyarbakir City Museum will soon open at Sourp Giragos Church.

The Sourp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd
The Sourp Giragos Church in Diyarbakir/Dikranagerd (Photo by Gulisor Akkum, The Armenian Weekly)

The Diyarbakir City Museum itself will be housed at the Cemil Pasha mansion in the city center.

Gaffur Ohannes Turkay, a trustee of the Sourp Giragos Foundation, told the Armenian Weekly that the Diyarbakir Metropolitan Municipality accepted an offer by the Foundation to host the Armenian section of the museum at the church. A protocol was signed to formalize the agreement.

According to the agreement, the Metropolitan Municipality will cover the security, maintenance, and other expenses associated with the Armenian section of the museum.

Gaffur Ohannes Turkay
Gaffur Ohannes Turkay (Photo by Gulisor Akkum, The Armenian Weekly)

The items collected for display at the Armenian section of the museum will belong to the Sourp Giragos Church, Gaffur Ohannes Turkay noted.

Alongside the Armenian section, a cafe will also be opened on the church premises to support the operation of the church and engender greater activity.

This report was filed by the Armenian Weekly’s Diyarbakir correspondent Gulisor Akkum.

Gulisor Akkum

Gulisor Akkum

Gulisor Akkum is a journalist based in Diyarbakir. She received her sociology degree in 2003 from Dicle University. She has written articles for the Armenian Weekly since 2009, and is the Weekly's correspondent in Diyarbakir since October 2012.

16 Comments

  1. I understand there is a call to Armenians for items to be included in the collection. Oh, I was thinking maybe some of the goods plundered by Diyarbekir Kurds in 1915 can be returned and included instead….

  2. It is just great please inform us the opening date of the City Museum at Sourp Giragos Church to be present for the inauguration.

  3. ANI
    Your comment is not helpful and unnecessary ! Are you unable to
    understand that the people in Amida wants a new beginning of the
    relations with Armenians ? Your hardline comment should go to –
    wards Ankara and the Turks. THEY are officially working against
    Armenians ! Furthermore I am convinced that people who have
    still now Armenian articles from 1915 will deliver them to the
    Museum by and by.

  4. Dear WR and Arshag,
    I apologize if my tone offended you. I was not being sarcastic, it is how I feel. Not everyone needs to be happy with the breadcrumbs being thrown at us. In Diyarbakir it was the Kurds who plundered and did all the unspeakable acts to Armenians, not the Turks. The aghas and their descendents are now all very wealthy thanks to what they stole. I am sorry if I don’t believe that they will are now so sorry they will return those articles. If so why are they making calls to Armenians to contribute? Haven’t we contributed enough?

  5. There are a few other things that I find very troubling about this museum.
    It troubles me that a Turkish government agency (which the municipality is) will have an official foot in the door of an Armenian church. That they will provide “24 hours surveillance of the church complex” according to Verchihan Ziflioglu’s article in the Hurriyet Daily news. This would definitely put an end to the numerous crypto Armenians, who might want to get baptized at Sourp Giragos as many have done recently. At any rate, I find it hard to stomach that an Armenian church would have any type of surveillance by a government agency, let alone a Turkish government agency.
    Secondly, according to the head of the foundation, the “collected belongings would be transferred to the inventory of the foundation pending the signing of a protocol for the museum”. Oh yes, signing of another protocol…What I don’t understand is why wait? If the people are sending it to the foundation the items should belong to the foundation from day one. Not that foundation laws are respected in Turkey but it might slow down further plunder.
    Lastly, if Mayor Ozdemir and the Diyabarkir Culture and Tourism Directorate are sincere about their warm feelings towards Armenians why don’t they include an Armenian section in the main museum at the Cemil Pasha museum? Why doesn’t Armenian past belong to the main museum? That would also give them the opportunity to state that Cemil Pasha had saved many Armenians during the dark days of the Armenian Genocide. Just a thought….

  6. Ani
    Mayor Ozdemir and the municipality of Diarbakir have done enough to prove their sincerity on what they say about Armenians. Diarbakir is the first city in Turkey to recognize Armenian Genocide publicly and commemorate it at municipality level. Also they have acknowledged the share of their ancestors in the Genocide of their Armenian neighbours and have apologized. What more do you want?

  7. Dear Arshag,
    I know and acknowledge Mr Ozdemir’s recognition of the Armenian Genocide and his apology on behalf of Kurds. I also know that this was at a personal cost to him as he is currently being prosecuted for having done so. However, I don’t have to applaud everything he does.

    I think I was clear about “what more do you want” in my previous comment, but if I can reiterate it I do not want Turkish Government surveillance in an Armenian church. All of us who lobby US and other governments for the return of Armenian churches in Western Armenia should be thinking of financing the one church we have resurected so that it doesn’t have to be reliant on the Turkish municipality for anything. This is especially the case if the church is providing the real estate and the contents of the museum. Mayors come and go, but I guarantee you security cameras and policemen will stay. Am I clear?

  8. Arshag,
    Isn’t his name Osman Baydemir?

    Ani,
    Yes, breadcrumbs, but they could just do without all that. Arshag is right. I, too, have the impression that mayor Baydemir really means what he is saying. There aren’t so many people like him. Kurds owe us a lot but we should also be appreciative of what’s being done in Diyarbakir.

  9. Yeah, why don’t we get our lands back up to the Sevres Treaty boundaries, which does not include Diarbekir, then worry about the Kurds south of that line. I am sure our two people can work out a solution.

  10. Gina,
    Thanks for correcting. I just used Ozdemir taking the name from the previous comment.
    Ani,
    First of all, if surveillance of the church should be such a big problem I think the Armenian Patriarchate in Istanbul would be the right authority to deal with it.
    Secondly, why should the Turkish government’s surveillance of the church be blamed on Kurdish officials who do their best to assist the revival of Armenian presence in their area? It may not necessarily have to do with the Municipality. It could be it is for security reasons to keep the church safe from purposeful destruction and plunder. It could also be the result of frictions between the central and local government. You should know well that recognizing the Armenian Genocide publicly and commemorating it at official level in Turkey is an open challenge to the anti-Armenian, denialist policy of successive Turkish governments. It would be unfair to make an issue of it in the face of all is done to the benefit of Armenians in Diyarbekir.

  11. It’s probably nothing more than a clever way for the Diyarbekir authorities to avoid the difficulties of displaying Armenian artefacts in a museum in Turkey. Just stick them inside a church that is probably almost always closed and that nobody except the occasional passing Armenian will ever visit. But I suppose its better than the “hide them somewhere at the back of the museum garden” solution that most museums in Turkey take. However, I shudder at the difficulties anyone wanting to study the objects will face at the hands of the Armenian Church and it’s standard “that’s forbidden – you must get permision from Kumkapi” mantra.

  12. The remnants of our family from Diyarbakir (Dikranagerd) are now scattered around the globe. It is heart-warming to hear that a museum is being planned. Mayor Baydemir is sincere. The story of his life’s activities in other areas proves this. My ancestors were very involved in the rebuilding of this church in the 1880s and also in supporting the Armenian Catholic Church in Diyarbakir. The union of these two prominent families, one Apostolic, the other Catholic, was unheard of before the marriage of my grandparents in Diyarbakir. My ancestors’ history will now be displayed at the church.

  13. I , an American-Armenian whose fathers’ family came from Kars and Ani wish for more of this kind of recognition by all Turks and Kurds. Then maybe we can rebuild that area and live in peace. I dream of a country called Ararat where Turks,Kurds,Assyrians, Greeks and Armenians could be equals and pool their rich history, knowledge and talents together! Just imagine!

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