A couple of days ago several Armenian television stations broadcasted the inauguration of the Holy Cross church of Akhtamar. The Armenian delegation headed by Deputy Culture Minister Gagik Gyurjyan was one of the participants.
Turkish Culture Minister Atila Koch represented the Turkish government. Koch recently announced that Turkey plans to reconstruct another church in Ani and that, according to him, it won’t end there. Experts ascertain that the church has been reconstructed well and there are no serious defects. But I wouldn’t like to go further in detail regarding the inauguration; rather I would like to focus on the feedback from Armenia about the Turkish government’s initiative.
On the day of the Holy Cross church inauguration, the ARF “Nikol Aghbalyan” student union organized the opening of the “Cultural Genocide” exhibition presenting the past and present of 150 Armenian historical monuments in Turkey and Azerbaijan. According to the young Dashnaks, the opening of the Holy Cross church is yet more propaganda spread by the Turkish government aimed at proving to the world that “the long enimical policy of the Turkish government towards Armenia has changed”. They stated that most of the Armenian historical monuments located in Turkey have either been demolished or are on the verge of collapse. Armenian state propagators also considered the inauguration of the Holy Cross church as “throwing dust in the eyes of the world”. Official press speaker for the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Armenia Vladimir Karapetyan announced that Turkey is using the opening of the church for its propaganda. He also said that the Armenian side believes that there can be progress in the improvement of Armenian-Turkish relations by, first and foremost, the opening of the Turkish-Armenian border, which has been closed since 1993. We hear about this position quite often. In other words, Armenia, which continuously declares that it is ready to establish ties with Turkey without preconditions, is “slowly” beginning to set a precondition: open the border; something which was supposed to be the result of the amelioration of Turkish-Armenian relations. So, the Armenian side is responding to the “dust blowers” of the Turkish side with its strict position (otherwise, you never know, the bilateral relations may get better and in that case, Russia, the “forepost owner” and “strategic ally”, may get angry). But let’s not get off topic and get back to the Holy Cross church inauguration.
We really can’t disagree with the young Dashnaks. It is really a sin when a church is ruined and turned into a cowshed…A couple of years ago, for the first time, I witnessed a similar barbaric scene-the church was completely destroyed. There were only a few walls, some people near the territory, pigs grazing nearby, sheep, donkeys, cows and other animals were fulfilling their sanitary needs near the church or in the church where they go when escaping the heat. There was mud and dirt around the destroyed church, the smell was unpleasant, and for some reason there were way too many flies…It was really pathetic and barbaric, not to mention that there was no cross on the dome, because it had no dome. You have probably heard of that monument; it is called Matosavank. We propose to the young Dashnaks to include pictures portraying that chuch in their next exhibition. But let’s not immediately curse the Turks. That historical monument is located in the current territory of Armenia, not far from the Yerevan State University camp in Dilijan. Every year, just like the cows and other animals there, the friends of the young Dashnaks that curse the Turkish barbarians day and night treat that place as a restroom and perhaps most of those Dashnaks do too.
We can also organize an exhibition about the other monuments located in Armenia; there are not only 150, but rather 1500 historical/cultural monuments to show. During that exhibition the senior friends of the young Dashnaks will show one of the historical/cultural landmarks that they have turned into a restaurant. Even today everyone, including the Dashnaks, witnesses the destruction of a historical/cultural monument near the Government building and the landmark-turned restaurant mentioned above and most probably an elite building will be constructed there.
We’re not even talking about how many similar monuments were demolished for the construction of those buildings. Why do we notice the demolitions of the Turks’ and not ours? Why don’t we learn lessons from history and put an end to the moaning and groaning? We have demolished so many historical/cultural monuments by ourselves, or in the best case scenario, made them equal to the Matosavank monastery. Wouldn’t it be better if Matosavank was a museum and students went there not to fulfill their sanitary needs, but rather to actually learn something? Now we complain that Turkey has put on a show by opening Holy Cross for political motives. But why shouldn’t it have been done if it benefits the country? Instead of admiring Turkey for its policy and learn from the Turks who use every minor detail to their benefit, we curse them for daring to remodel the Holy Cross church and turn it into a museum (how obscene). This presupposes that we would prefer to have that 10th century church be completely destroyed and thrown to waste than to have it remodeled, turned into a museum and help Turkey in any way. It is amazing to hear Foreign Ministry representative V. Karapetyan’s comment that the Turkish authorities don’t recall that the church is of Armenian belonging. Let us recall that Turkey invited only the official Armenian delegation to the inauguration of the church. The Catholicos of All Armenians and the Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia were also invited. Read carefully: only Armenia was invited and not, let’s say, Tajikstan or Namibia. What more could you ask for? Doesn’t this mean that they consider us the owners? Otherwise, they wouldn’t have invited us, or they would have invited others. Our reaction goes to show that we are not guided by our interests, but go against Turkey’s interests, thinking that if something may benefit Turkey, then we have to be against it. Please, let Turkey “throw dust in the eyes of the international community” by reconstructing Armenian historical monuments; we will join them and will both “throw the dust” if as a result many Armenian historical monuments will be saved from elimination. In other words, we will get benefits by the compatibility of Turkish and Armenian interests and not struggle against anything that can benefit Turkey. We are going against ourselves by doing that. It should not be perceived that Turkey is using the opening of the Holy Cross church to its advantage and Armenia is not. Armenia is also using it to its advantage for propaganda, but not to our benefit, rather against us by increasing phony nationalism and blurring the prospective for the improvement of Turkish-Armenian relations.