Surp Haç service a chance for détente, Turkish minister says

Surp Haç service a chance for détente, Turkish minister says

Sunday, September 5, 2010

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News

All Armenians planning to attend the Sept. 19 service at Van’s Surp Haç Church will be welcomed with open arms, Culture Minister Ertuğrul Günay says. Although some Armenians are suspicious of Turkey’s intentions, the minister expresses Turkey’s goodwill toward all Armenians, adding that the service will bring Turks and Armenians closer together

The Surp Haç Church in Van.

The forthcoming mass at Surp Haç Church in Van represents the continuing effort to achieve reconciliation between Turks and Armenians, according to Culture and Tourism Minister Ertuğrul Günay.

“The Turkish-Armenian Patriarchate introduced the idea of holding mass in the church once a year and we accepted. This brings us one step closer [to rapprochement] and will be followed by others,” Günay recently told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review.

“I grew up with Armenians, my best friend is Armenian. We never knew enmity. Hrant [Dink] expressed it so well when he said, ‘We all want to be buried deep in these lands.’ I feel these words deep in my heart. Greek, Turkish or Armenian, we are all children of these lands,” he said.

Dink was a Turkish journalist of Armenian origin that was allegedly shot by an ultranationalist outside his newspaper’s office Jan. 19, 2007.

While the minister is excited about the many Armenians that will come to the Sept. 19 mass at the Surp Haç Church in the eastern Turkish province, he said he would be unfortunately unable to attend due to a busy schedule.

Armenian concerns

Even though many in the community are suspicious about Turkey’s intentions and are unhappy services will be permitted there only once per year, thousands of Armenians from Armenia itself, Turkey and the diaspora are expected to descend on the church on Akdamar Island.

“It is our pleasure to host everyone who comes here,” Günay said, adding that nationalists and politicians in both countries were kindling the continuing tension and enmity. “If they just stepped aside, people with common sense in both countries would find a way to establish dialogue.”

Part of the Armenian press’ disillusionment with Turkey’s opening of the historical site is based on claims that the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry is putting various religious sites in the area, which were renovated after 2007 and quickly reopened, to commercial use.

In response, Günay said that although he could not speak on behalf of his predecessors, he personally valued each religious site greatly without discerning between them “because I believe in God.”

Trabzon precedent

Regarding the recent mass at Sümela Monastery in the Black Sea province of Trabzon, Günay said he was sorry the province hit headlines following the Father Santoro in 2006 and the assassination of Dink a year later.

“Some public officers, and particularly the police force, are manipulating those who have nothing to do, that is why these assassinations happened,” the minister said.

Nonetheless, Turks want to improve relations with the Armenian diaspora, Günay said. "We collaborated with other political parties in preparing the mass at Sümela. The people of Trabzon want to clear themselves of their past and they have. They helped us a lot.”

He also said he had prepared the public for the service himself by paying regular visits to the province throughout 2009. “Some people verbally attacked me many times. But I did not care, because I was sure of what I was doing.”

Despite recent speculation that Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia was also prepared to hold a service, the minister said the iconic Istanbul site would never host any kind of religious service and would maintain its status as a museum.