Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross
Encyclopedia
The Church of the Holy Cross
( on Akhtamar Island, in Turkey, was a cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church
, built as a palace church for the kings of Vaspurakan
and later serving as the seat of the Armenian Catholicosate of Aght'amar.
During his reign, King Gagik I Artsruni
(r. 908-943/944) of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan
chose the island of Aght'amar as one of his residences founding a settlement there. The only structure standing from that period is the Cathedral. It was built of pink volcanic tufa by the architect-monk Manuel during the years 915-921, with an interior measuring 14.80m by 11.5m and the dome reaching 20.40m above ground. In later centuries, and until 1915, it formed part of a monastic complex, the ruins of which can still be seen to the south of the church.
Between 1116 and 1895 Aght'amar Island was the location of the Armenian Catholicosate
of Aght'amar. Khachatur III, who died in 1895, was the last Catholicos
of Aght'amar. In 1915, during the Armenian Genocide
, the monks of Aght'amar were massacred, the cathedral looted, and the monastic buildings destroyed.
The Cathedral has since fallen into disuse. When the writer and journalist Yaşar Kemal
was visiting the island of Akhtamar in 1951, he saw the Holy Cross Church being destroyed. Using his contacts to the public, he helped stop destruction of the site. However, the church remained in a neglected state until 2005, when restoration as a secular museum by the Turkish government began.
several centuries earlier; the best-known example being that of the seventh century St. Hripsime
church in Echmiadzin
, incorporating a dome with a conical roof.
The unique importance of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross comes from the extensive array of bas-relief carving of mostly biblical scenes that adorn its external walls. The meanings of these reliefs have been the subject of much and varied interpretation. Not all of this speculation has been produced in good faith - for example, Turkish sources stress alleged Islamic and Turkic influences behind the content of the reliefs and minimise native Armenian influences. Some scholars assert that the friezes parallel contemporary motifs found in Umayyad
art - such as a turbaned prince, Arab styles of dress, wine imagery; allusions to royal Sassanian imagery are also present (Griffins, for example).
, the church had been exposed to extensive vandalism. Before the restoration of the church, the reliefs on the church wall used as a military training ground."
) and was financed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. It officially re-opened as a museum on 29 March 2007 in a ceremony attended by the Turkish Minister of Culture, government officials, ambassadors of several countries, Patriach Mesrob II
(spiritual leader of the Armenian Orthodox community of Turkey), a delegation from the Republic of Armenia headed by the Deputy to the Armenian Minister of Culture, and a large group of invited journalists from many news organizations around the world.
Özdemir Çakacak, the Governor of Van, described the refurbishing of the church as "a show of Turkey's respect for history and culture". A Turkish state department museum official added, "We could not have ignored the artifacts of our Armenian citizens, and we did not." Signs heralding the church reopening declared "Tarihe saygı, kültüre saygı" ("Respect for history, respect for culture").
According to Maximilian Hartmuth an academician at Sabanci University, "the church was turned into a museum rather than re-opened as a place of worship following the restoration was, for example, claimed to be a wedge separating the monument from Turkey’s Armenian community. The critics, writing for media such as Radikal, Milliyet, or Turkish Daily News, furthermore lamented that permission to re-mount the cross on top of the church was not given. Moreover, they argued, the official name of the museum, the Turkish Akdamar (translating as “white vein”) rather than the original Armenian Ahtamar – the name of the island in Lake Van on which the church stands and Surp Haç (Holy Cross) for the church itself would suggest this to be a Turkish monument. At the same time only sparing use was made of the word “Armenian” in official statements. With Turkey’s Armenian community not granted the privilege to hold a service at least once a year - as had been requested - and a large Turkish flag mounted at the site, it was argued that this project really announced the “Turkification” of this monument, the initiative being no more than a media stunt."
displayed prominently. Armenian religious leaders invited to attend the opening ceremony opted to boycott the event, because the church was being reopened as a secular museum.
However the Turkish Government announced permission for a liturgy to be said on September 19, 2010, and the service took place as planned.
Controversy surrounded the issue of whether the cross atop the dome until 1915 should be replaced. Some Armenians said that the renovation was unfinished until the cross was replaced, and that prayer should be allowed inside at least once a year. A cross had been prepared nearly a year before the opening, and Mesrob II petitioned the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture to place the cross on the dome of the cathedral. Turkish officials said that the base was not appropriate for the cross the Patriarchate brought as it was made to support the original cross. Later, the issue which was politicizd by the two sides have been solved. Since October 2, 2010, the cross sits at the top of the church.
columnist Cengiz Çandar
characterized the way the Turkish government handled the opening as an extension of an ongoing "cultural genocide
" of the Armenians. He characterizes the renaming of the church from Armenian to Turkish as part of a broader program to rename Armenian historical sites in Turkey, and attributes the refusal to place a cross atop the church as symptomatic of religious intolerance in Turkish society.
Çandar notes that the Agos
issue published on the day of the murder of Hrant Dink
featured a Dink commentary on the Turkish government's handling of the Akdamar issue, which the late journalist characterized as "A real comedy... A real tragedy..." According to Dink,
has answered some criticism of the Akdamar project, stating that, on the contrary, the project represents an answer to allegations of cultural genocide. He has stated that the revitalization of the site is "an important peace offering" from the Turkish government.
Ian Herbert, writing in The Independent
, records his own experiences traveling in Turkey on an invitation from the Turkish government in the period of the opening of Akdamar:
Cengiz Aktar, an academic of Galatasaray University
, also took a critical stance towards the loss of the island's original name in his article titled "White Vein church and others" (Akdamar means "white vein" in Turkish).
Christian cross
The Christian cross, seen as a representation of the instrument of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, is the best-known religious symbol of Christianity...
( on Akhtamar Island, in Turkey, was a cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church
The Armenian Apostolic Church is the world's oldest National Church, is part of Oriental Orthodoxy, and is one of the most ancient Christian communities. Armenia was the first country to adopt Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD, in establishing this church...
, built as a palace church for the kings of Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan was the first and biggest province of Greater Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered around Lake Van...
and later serving as the seat of the Armenian Catholicosate of Aght'amar.
History
Artsruni
Artsruni was an ancient Armenian noble family that claimed descent from Sennacherib, King of Assyria . Although it mirrors the Bagratuni claim of Davidic descent and the Mamikonian claim of descent from the royal Han Dynasty, it is usually interpreted as a piece of genealogical mythology...
(r. 908-943/944) of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan
Vaspurakan was the first and biggest province of Greater Armenia, which later became an independent kingdom during the Middle Ages, centered around Lake Van...
chose the island of Aght'amar as one of his residences founding a settlement there. The only structure standing from that period is the Cathedral. It was built of pink volcanic tufa by the architect-monk Manuel during the years 915-921, with an interior measuring 14.80m by 11.5m and the dome reaching 20.40m above ground. In later centuries, and until 1915, it formed part of a monastic complex, the ruins of which can still be seen to the south of the church.
Between 1116 and 1895 Aght'amar Island was the location of the Armenian Catholicosate
Catholicos of Armenia
The Catholicos of All Armenians is the chief bishop of Armenia's national church, the Armenian Apostolic Church. It is one of the Oriental Orthodox churches that do not accept the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon. The first Catholicos of All Armenians was Saint Gregory the Illuminator...
of Aght'amar. Khachatur III, who died in 1895, was the last Catholicos
Catholicos
Catholicos, plural Catholicoi, is a title used for the head of certain churches in some Eastern Christian traditions. The title implies autocephaly and in some cases is borne by the designated head of an autonomous church, in which case the holder might have other titles such as Patriarch...
of Aght'amar. In 1915, during the Armenian Genocide
Armenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, the monks of Aght'amar were massacred, the cathedral looted, and the monastic buildings destroyed.
The Cathedral has since fallen into disuse. When the writer and journalist Yaşar Kemal
Yasar Kemal
Yaşar Kemal, is a Turkish writer. He is one of Turkey's leading writers. He has long been a candidate for the Nobel Prize in Literature, on the strength of Memed, My Hawk....
was visiting the island of Akhtamar in 1951, he saw the Holy Cross Church being destroyed. Using his contacts to the public, he helped stop destruction of the site. However, the church remained in a neglected state until 2005, when restoration as a secular museum by the Turkish government began.
Architecture
The architecture of the church is based on a form that had been developed in ArmeniaArmenian architecture
Armenian architecture is an architectural style developed over the last 4,500 years of human habitation in the Armenian Highland and used principally by the Armenian people.- Common characteristics of Armenian architecture:...
several centuries earlier; the best-known example being that of the seventh century St. Hripsime
St. Hripsime Church, Echmiadzin
Saint Hripsimé Church is one of the oldest surviving churches in Armenia. The church was erected by Catholicos Komitas atop the original mausoleum built by Catholicos Sahak the Great in the year 395 AD that contained the remains of the martyred Saint Hripsimé to whom the church was dedicated. The...
church in Echmiadzin
Echmiadzin
Mother Cathedral of Holy Etchmiadzin is a 4th century Armenian church in the town of Ejmiatsin, Armenia. It is also the central cathedral of the Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin of the Armenian Apostolic Church....
, incorporating a dome with a conical roof.
The unique importance of the Cathedral Church of the Holy Cross comes from the extensive array of bas-relief carving of mostly biblical scenes that adorn its external walls. The meanings of these reliefs have been the subject of much and varied interpretation. Not all of this speculation has been produced in good faith - for example, Turkish sources stress alleged Islamic and Turkic influences behind the content of the reliefs and minimise native Armenian influences. Some scholars assert that the friezes parallel contemporary motifs found in Umayyad
Umayyad
The Umayyad Caliphate was the second of the four major Arab caliphates established after the death of Muhammad. It was ruled by the Umayyad dynasty, whose name derives from Umayya ibn Abd Shams, the great-grandfather of the first Umayyad caliph. Although the Umayyad family originally came from the...
art - such as a turbaned prince, Arab styles of dress, wine imagery; allusions to royal Sassanian imagery are also present (Griffins, for example).
Vandalism
After the Armenian GenocideArmenian Genocide
The Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
, the church had been exposed to extensive vandalism. Before the restoration of the church, the reliefs on the church wall used as a military training ground."
Restoration
Between May 2005 and October 2006, the church underwent a controversial restoration program. The restoration had a stated budget of 2 million New Turkish Lira (approximately 1.4 million USDUnited States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
) and was financed by the Turkish Ministry of Culture. It officially re-opened as a museum on 29 March 2007 in a ceremony attended by the Turkish Minister of Culture, government officials, ambassadors of several countries, Patriach Mesrob II
Patriarch Mesrob II Mutafyan of Constantinople
Archbishop Mesrob II Mutafyan, also known as Mesrop Mutafyan, is the 84th Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople...
(spiritual leader of the Armenian Orthodox community of Turkey), a delegation from the Republic of Armenia headed by the Deputy to the Armenian Minister of Culture, and a large group of invited journalists from many news organizations around the world.
Özdemir Çakacak, the Governor of Van, described the refurbishing of the church as "a show of Turkey's respect for history and culture". A Turkish state department museum official added, "We could not have ignored the artifacts of our Armenian citizens, and we did not." Signs heralding the church reopening declared "Tarihe saygı, kültüre saygı" ("Respect for history, respect for culture").
According to Maximilian Hartmuth an academician at Sabanci University, "the church was turned into a museum rather than re-opened as a place of worship following the restoration was, for example, claimed to be a wedge separating the monument from Turkey’s Armenian community. The critics, writing for media such as Radikal, Milliyet, or Turkish Daily News, furthermore lamented that permission to re-mount the cross on top of the church was not given. Moreover, they argued, the official name of the museum, the Turkish Akdamar (translating as “white vein”) rather than the original Armenian Ahtamar – the name of the island in Lake Van on which the church stands and Surp Haç (Holy Cross) for the church itself would suggest this to be a Turkish monument. At the same time only sparing use was made of the word “Armenian” in official statements. With Turkey’s Armenian community not granted the privilege to hold a service at least once a year - as had been requested - and a large Turkish flag mounted at the site, it was argued that this project really announced the “Turkification” of this monument, the initiative being no more than a media stunt."
Religious Life
The church is now a secular museum and there has been reluctance to allow Christian worship to resume there. When a ceremony was held to mark the restoration there were images of Mustafa Kemal AtatürkMustafa Kemal Atatürk
Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was an Ottoman and Turkish army officer, revolutionary statesman, writer, and the first President of Turkey. He is credited with being the founder of the Republic of Turkey....
displayed prominently. Armenian religious leaders invited to attend the opening ceremony opted to boycott the event, because the church was being reopened as a secular museum.
However the Turkish Government announced permission for a liturgy to be said on September 19, 2010, and the service took place as planned.
Controversy surrounded the issue of whether the cross atop the dome until 1915 should be replaced. Some Armenians said that the renovation was unfinished until the cross was replaced, and that prayer should be allowed inside at least once a year. A cross had been prepared nearly a year before the opening, and Mesrob II petitioned the Prime Minister and Minister of Culture to place the cross on the dome of the cathedral. Turkish officials said that the base was not appropriate for the cross the Patriarchate brought as it was made to support the original cross. Later, the issue which was politicizd by the two sides have been solved. Since October 2, 2010, the cross sits at the top of the church.
Renaming
HürriyetHürriyet
-External links:* * ** * *...
columnist Cengiz Çandar
Cengiz Çandar
Cengiz Çandar is a Turkish journalist and a former war correspondent.-Early life:He finished the secondary school at Talas American College in Talas, Kayseri and the high school at Tarsus American College in Tarsus, Mersin...
characterized the way the Turkish government handled the opening as an extension of an ongoing "cultural genocide
Cultural genocide
Cultural genocide is a term that lawyer Raphael Lemkin proposed in 1933 as a component to genocide. The term was considered in the 1948 United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples juxtaposed next to the term ethnocide, but it was removed in the final document, replaced with...
" of the Armenians. He characterizes the renaming of the church from Armenian to Turkish as part of a broader program to rename Armenian historical sites in Turkey, and attributes the refusal to place a cross atop the church as symptomatic of religious intolerance in Turkish society.
Çandar notes that the Agos
Agos
Agos is an Armenian weekly newspaper published in Istanbul, Turkey. It was established on 5 April 1996. Today, it has a circulation of over 9,000. It has both Armenian and Turkish pages as well as an on-line English edition...
issue published on the day of the murder of Hrant Dink
Hrant Dink
Hrant Dink or Հրանտ Դինք ) was a Turkish citizen of Armenian descent editor, journalist and columnist....
featured a Dink commentary on the Turkish government's handling of the Akdamar issue, which the late journalist characterized as "A real comedy... A real tragedy..." According to Dink,
The government hasn't still been able to formulate a correct approach to the “Armenian questionArmenian QuestionThe term "Armenian Question" as used in European history, became common place among diplomatic circles and in the popular press after the Congress of Berlin; that in like Eastern Question, refers to powers of Europe's involvement to the Armenian subjects of the Ottoman Empire beginning with the...
.” Its real aim is not to solve the problem, but to gain points like a wrestler in a contest. How and when it will make the right move and defeat its opponent. That's the only concern. This is not earnestness. The state calls on Armenian historians to discuss history, but does not shy from trying its own intellectuals who have an unorthodox rhetoric on the Armenian genocideArmenian GenocideThe Armenian Genocide—also known as the Armenian Holocaust, the Armenian Massacres and, by Armenians, as the Great Crime—refers to the deliberate and systematic destruction of the Armenian population of the Ottoman Empire during and just after World War I...
. It 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?”
Protests
The opening was controversial among some Turkish groups, who protested at the island and in a separate demonstration in Ankara. Police detained five Turkish nationals protesting against the restoration of the church at Lake Van, who carried a banner declaring "The Turkish people are noble. They would never commit genocide." Demonstrators outside the Ministry of the Interior in Ankara chanted slogans against the possibility of a cross being erected atop the church, declaring "You are all Armenians, we are all Turks and Muslims".Other Controversies
Historian Ara SarafianAra Sarafian
Ara Sarafian is a British historian of Armenian origin. He has an M.A. in history from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, received under the tutelage of Ronald Grigor Suny....
has answered some criticism of the Akdamar project, stating that, on the contrary, the project represents an answer to allegations of cultural genocide. He has stated that the revitalization of the site is "an important peace offering" from the Turkish government.
Ian Herbert, writing in The Independent
The Independent
The Independent is a British national morning newspaper published in London by Independent Print Limited, owned by Alexander Lebedev since 2010. It is nicknamed the Indy, while the Sunday edition, The Independent on Sunday, is the Sindy. Launched in 1986, it is one of the youngest UK national daily...
, records his own experiences traveling in Turkey on an invitation from the Turkish government in the period of the opening of Akdamar:
Cengiz Aktar, an academic of Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University
Galatasaray University or Université Galatasaray is a Turkish university established in İstanbul, Turkey in 1992, following an agreement signed with the presence of President François Mitterrand of France and President Turgut Özal of Turkey during a ceremony at Galatasaray High School, the mother...
, also took a critical stance towards the loss of the island's original name in his article titled "White Vein church and others" (Akdamar means "white vein" in Turkish).
External links
- Information about Akdamar Island from Sacred Sites, Places of Peace and Power
- The Surp Hach (Saint Cross) church on Akhtamar Island
- A detailed study of the reliefs on the east facade of the Holy Cross church on Aghtamar island
- Observations and comments on the 2005-2006 restoration of the church
- Aghtamar: An Interactive Presentation of the Church of the Holy Cross