Inauguration of Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar is "cultural genocide"

PanARMENIAN.Net - "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". The Ministry has renamed the 1000-year-old Armenian capital "Ani", and also removed the cross and the bells from the Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar 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," analyst Cengiz Çandar writes in Turkish Daily News. According to the analyst it is an absurd not putting a cross and a bell onto the renovated church. "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 "cultural genocide".



The analyst of Turkish Daily News reminds the last editorial of Hrant Dink, where he wrote, "The opening of the restored Holy Cross Armenian Church of Akhtamar Island has turned into a comedy. The Turkish government restores an Armenian church in the Southeast, but only thinks, "How can I use this for political gains in the world, how can I sell it?" They shot Hrant on the day this article was published, the newspaper reminds.