Turkish Police Break Up Children's Prayer in Armenian Church

by Sandy Smith

www.huliq.com

Turkish police ushered a group of Armenian children out of a 10th-century Armenian Christian church on the island of Akdamar in Anatolia after the children began lighting candles, singing hymns and engaging in prayer.

The church of Sourp Khatch, or Holy Cross, was a cathedral of the Armenian Apostolic Church dating back to the 10th century; its priests and monks were murdered and monastery at the church destroyed in the Armenian genocide of 1915. In 2005-06, as part of the fitful path toward reconciliation between Armenia and Turkey, the Turkish government launched a costly and controversial restoration of the cathedral building, which reopened in 2007 as a secular museum in a ceremony to which Armenian government officials and the international press were invited.

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