from the cathedral The architecture of the church is based on a form that had been developed in
Armenia several centuries earlier; the best-known example being that of the seventh century
St. Hripsime church in
Echmiadzin, incorporating a dome with a conical roof. assert that the friezes parallel contemporary motifs found in
Umayyad art - such as a turbaned prince, Arab styles of dress, wine imagery; allusions to royal
Sassanian imagery are also present (griffins, for example). During many conferences related to the restoration of the Akhtamar church, the process of covering the bullet holes are identified as the hardest part of the restoration by academicians and architects. Some claim that the Armenian churches and gravestones have been exposed to vandalism as a part of the Turkish government policy which aims to destroy the Armenian heritage in Anatolia. In 1951 an order was issued to demolish the church, but the writer
Yasar Kemal managed to stop its destruction. He explained the situation to
Alain Bosquet as "I was in a ship from
Tatvan to
Van. I met with a military officer Dr. Cavit Bey on board. I told him, in this city there is a church descended from Armenians. It is a masterpiece. These days, they are demolishing this church. I will take you there tomorrow. This church is a monument of Anatolia. Can you help me to stop the destruction? The next day we went there with the military officer. They have already demolished the small chapel next to the church. The military officer became angry and told the workers, "I am ordering you to stop working. I will meet with governor. There will be no movement until I return to the island again". The workers immediately stopped the demolition. We arrived at Van city center. I contacted the newspaper
Cumhuriyet. They informed the Ministry of Education about the demolition. Two days later, Minister Avni Başman telegraphed the Van governor and ordered to stop the demolition permanently. June 25, 1951, the day when the order came, is the liberation day of the church."
Restoration Between May 2005 and October 2006, the church underwent a controversial restoration program. The restoration had a stated budget of 2 million
Turkish Lira (approximately 1.4 million
USD) and was financed by the
Turkish Ministry of Culture. It officially re-opened as a museum on 29 March 2007 in a ceremony attended by the Turkish Minister of Culture, government officials, ambassadors of several countries,
Patriarch Mesrob II (spiritual leader of the Armenian Orthodox community of Turkey), a delegation from
Armenia headed by the Deputy to the Armenian Minister of Culture, and a large group of invited journalists from many news organizations around the world. Özdemir Çakacak, the
Governor of Van, described the refurbishing of the church as "a show of Turkey's respect for history and culture". A Turkish state department museum official added, "We could not have ignored the artifacts of our Armenian citizens, and we did not." The initial Divine Liturgy in Holy Cross Church took place on 19 September, 2010. Prior to the opening of the Church, a concert was performed by pianist
Şahan Arzruni. According to Maximilian Hartmuth, an academician at
Sabancı University, "the church was turned into a museum rather than re-opened as a place of worship following the restoration was, for example, claimed to be a wedge separating the monument from Turkey’s Armenian community. The critics, writing for media such as
Radikal, Milliyet, or
Turkish Daily News, furthermore lamented that permission to re-mount the cross on top of the church was not given. Moreover, they argued, the official name of the museum, the Turkish
Akdamar (translating as “white vein”) rather than the original Armenian
Ahtamar – the name of the island in Lake Van on which the church stands and Surp Haç (Holy Cross) for the church itself would suggest this to be a Turkish monument. At the same time only sparing use was made of the word “Armenian” in official statements. With Turkey's Armenian community not granted the privilege to hold a service at least once a year - as had been requested - and a large Turkish flag flying over the island, it was suggested by some critics that this project really announced the “
Turkification” of this monument, the initiative being no more than a media stunt."
Controversies Armenian religious leaders invited to attend the opening ceremony opted to boycott the event, because the church was being reopened as a secular museum. Controversy surrounded the issue of whether the cross atop the dome until 1915 should be replaced. Some Armenians said that the renovation was unfinished until the cross was replaced, and that prayer should be allowed inside at least once a year. A cross had been prepared nearly a year before the opening, and Mesrob II petitioned the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture to place the cross on the dome of the cathedral. Turkish officials cited technical difficulties related to the structure of the restored building which may not be able to safely hold a heavy cross on top without further reinforcement. The cross was sent by the
Armenian Patriarchate of Istanbul to Van by plane. It is 2 meters high and weigh 110 kilograms. It was put on top of the church after being sanctified by Armenian clergymen. Since 2010, every year a mass is held in the church too. The opening was controversial among some Turkish nationalist groups, who protested at the island and in a separate demonstration in Ankara. Police detained five Turkish nationals who carried a banner declaring "The Turkish people are noble. They would never commit genocide." He characterizes the renaming of the church from Armenian to Turkish as part of a broader program to rename Armenian historical sites in Turkey, and attributes the refusal to place a cross atop the church as symptomatic of religious intolerance in Turkish society. (This was written before the cross was placed at its place on top of the church in 2010) Turkish deputy minister for culture,
İsmet Yılmaz cited technical reasons for not being able to place a cross atop the dome of the church: Although this explanation from the government met with doubts, after the cross was erected on the dome of the church in 2010 (which weighed 110 kg - about half of what the Turkish deputy minister spoke about), after
2011 Van earthquake cracks appeared around the dome of the church. Çandar notes that the
Agos issue published on the day of the murder of
Hrant Dink featured a Dink commentary on the Turkish government's handling of the Akdamar issue, which the late journalist characterized as "A real comedy... A real tragedy..." According to Dink, Historian
Ara Sarafian has answered some criticism of the Akdamar project, stating that, on the contrary, the project represents an answer to allegations of cultural genocide. He has stated that the revitalization of the site is "an important peace offering" from the Turkish government. The Armenian delegation attending the opening, led by the Deputy Minister of Culture and Youth Affairs; Gagik Giurjyan, faced obstacles on their way to the opening. They had to travel 16 hours by bus through
Georgia to Turkey, due to the closure of the Turkish-Armenian border by Turkey. Ian Herbert, writing in
The Independent, records his own experiences traveling in Turkey on an invitation from the Turkish government in the period of the opening of Akdamar: Cengiz Aktar, an academic of
Galatasaray University, also took a critical stance towards the loss of the island's original name in his article titled "White Vein church and others" (
Akdamar means "white vein" in Turkish). Not all the comments were negative of the restoration of the church by the Turkish government. British historian of Armenian descent,
Ara Sarafian considered the opening of the church for service as "a positive step". == Gallery ==