“Cultural Genocide”

04/04/2007

The “Turkish Daily News” published an article entitled “The so-called “Akdamar museum” on Friday in which the author compares the inauguration of the Holy Cross church of Akhtamar Island with “cultural genocide”.

“Today marks the day of the inauguration of the ‘church/museum’ which the Minister of Culture turned into a flurry. No matter what the intentions are, this is similar to a ‘cultural genocide’,” writes the author Jengiz Chandar. “Who will believe that you are a worldly people or that you ‘respect all religions’ or that you represent ‘the unity of civilizations’?” asks the author. He adds: “What you did is simply ‘cultural genocide’.”