Turkey’s Dersim residents hope for restoration of Armenian church

PanARMENIAN.Net - A dilapidated Ergeni Armenian church in the city of Tunceli, Dersim province collapsed, with villagers hoping for it to be reconstructed and turned into a tourist destination, Haber 3 reported.

The church, located at 15 kilometers from the city of Hozat, Dersim province, was impossible to register and reconstruct. Though the major part of the church, dilapidated after lengthy wars, collapsed, Armenian inscriptions can still be read on the ruins. The church is one of the biggest ones in Desrim. Though the church was taken under the control of the department of culture and tourism in 2012, no works to reconstruct the church were initiated.

2 Armenian cathedrals – Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island and St. Giragos Church in Diyarbakır have been reconstructed in Turkey. Restoration works in Ani, the capital of Armenian Bagratid Kingdom have been in progress for several years. Before the 1915 Armenian Genocide, there were over 2,5 thousand churches in the Ottoman Empire. All of them are ruined now.