The Hurriyet Daily News has a report about the reopening of a long-closed Armenian church in the city of Diyarbakir, in southeastern Turkey. From the article:
Hearkening back to Diyarbakır’s cosmopolitan past, diaspora Armenians and clergy held a small service in a local church Saturday in what many hope is a harbinger for a more multicultural future in the southeastern city.“The sounds of the call to prayer and church bells will mix here on this land from now on,” Diyarbakır Mayor Osman Baydemir said following the service at the restored Surp Giragos Church. “There were major sorrows experienced in the past. We [condemn] the heartlessness of those days in our hearts and we want a new start.”
The reopening of the Diyarbakir church comes in the wake of the higher profile service last September at the Akdemar Church near the city of Van (see this previous Eurasianet story and photo essay). While the reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia remains seriously stalled, it appears that a more grassroots kind of reconciliation process is happening in eastern Anatolia, with local administration trying to come to terms with the past.
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