"Отреставрировали" армянскую церковь на острове Ахтамар, в озере Ван.
Некоторые комментрии:
"Группы
[турецких] ультра-националистов организовали шествие протеста в Ване и заявили, что правящая партия "Справедливости и развития" поддалась американскому и армянскому давлению, отреставрировав и вновь открыв церковь, пусть и в качестве музея.
Отвечая на подобные обвинения,
[Атилла] Коч
[министр культуры Турции] сказал, что реставрация
[церкви] Св. Креста - ответственность правительства перед культурным и историческим наследием этой земли, а совсем не жест по отношению к Армении."
И англоязычная
статья:статья:
The so-called ‘Akdamar museum’
Friday, March 30, 2007
Cengiz Chandar
This is the day of the opening of a "church-museum," which the Minister of Cultural Affairs turned into a mess. Whatever the intention was, it looks like a "cultural genocide." Today is indeed the day of the opening of the Ahtamar Church, which has been just restored, to "tourism," and which is expected to attract many tourists to Eastern Anatolia.
However the Ministry has renamed the 1000-year-old Armenian capital "Ani" as "Anı" (which means "memory" in Turkish), and also removed the cross and the bells from the Ahtamar Church, which it renamed as "Akdamar" (which means "white vein" in Turkish.) This obsession with renaming, the cultural and religious intolerance shown towards the cross and the church bell, might well be perceived in the world as a "cultural genocide"; nobody should be surprised if that turns out to be the case.
The obsession with renaming:
The name Akhtamar comes from a myth about the lake Van. It is about the story of a young man, who was looking forward to reunite with his lover, Tamar, who was on the island along with the church in question. The man yelled "Ah, Tamar" while he was drowning. Why in the world we change that name into "Akdamar"?
What kind of a lack of imagination is that? We have renamed many historical areas within Turkey with completely made-up names like "Güzelyurt" (Beautiful Home), "Yeşilyurt" (Green Home), "Yeşilköy" (Green Village), "Gündoğan" (Rising Day). And now, "Ani" turned into "Anı", and "Akhtamar" into "Akdamar."
You restore a historical church and find absurd reasons for not putting a cross and a bell onto it? Who will believe that you are secular, or that you "respect all faiths," or that you represent "the alliance of civilizations against the clash of civilizations."
What you do is simply "cultural genocide." How come you have the right for that? And why?
Here is an excerpt from a news story published in the weekly Agos on March 23, and which tells about the letter sent by a group of intellectuals from the Istanbul Armenian community to Minister of Culture, Atilla Koç:
“…Emphasizing that the church on the island is named “Ahtamar Sourp Haç Church” and that it gets its name from the Sourp Haç festival celebrated on the second Sunday of every September, the intellectuals say: ‘This is an important day and an important festival for Armenians. This is also the reason for the existence of that church. Therefore, we think it would be appropriate to have the name of the church, just like the name of the island, to be changed to fit the its religious and historical significance… If required, the ownership of the property can be given to the community and the operation right to the relative state body. However, if this site will also be [serving as] a church, then it needs to be blessed and open to prayers'.”
Turkish Armenian Patriarch Mesrop II says: “Is it possible to have a church without a cross at the top? Furthermore, religious services will not be conducted at its opening. If I will not have a role there as a [man of] religion, there will not be a point in my going there.”
(c) Turkish Daily News
30.03.2007 в 22:27
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