Observers believe that more Armenians would have been in the eastern city of Van in Turkey to attend the September 19 religious ceremony in Holy Cross church on the island of Akhtamar if the border between Armenia and Turkey was open.

"If the border was open, all Armenians from Armenia would be there," said Kaan Soyak, co-founder and co-chairman of the Turkish-Armenian Business Development Council (TABDC).

Soyak also said that “Armenians in Armenia had difficulties understanding why the cross was not properly fixed on top of the church's steeple in time for the service.”

"They thought that the Turkish government is against putting the cross there. We tried to tell both the Armenian diaspora and Armenia that that was not the case," he said, quoted by Today's Zaman.