After 30 years of inactivity, the Saint Kirakos Armenian church in Diarbekir, Turkey offered prayers led by Archbishop Aram Ateshian, the Armenian Patriarchal Vicar of Constantinople to hundreds of Armenians who arrived from Turkey, Syria and Europe on Sunday.

Mayor of Diarbekir Osman Baydemir, greeting guests arriving in Diarbekir, stated, “Welcome to your town! Diarbekir is yours as much as it is mine.”

From 1915 to1960, St. Kirakos Church was used as an arms store, and later it became a bank office. It was later returned to the Armenian community, but poor condition, having been pillaged. Reconstruction of the 16th century church started last year and will be finished next year, totaling about $2.5 million with 70 percent of the money raised by the Armenian community in Istanbul, Turkey, and the remaining 30 percent coming from Diarbekir Municipality.

“We want to serve a holy mass at the Armenian St. Kirakos Church of Diarbekir once or twice a year as soon as the reconstruction works are finished,” said Tekin Papuchian, chairman of St. Kirakos Church Fund.

Before the genocide in 1915, Diarbekir was one of the six provinces of Western Armenia, and its territory (37,000 km) exceeded the territory of the Republic of Armenia, having a population of about 260,000, 105,000 among them Armenians. Now it is a Kurdish town, with very few Turks, Assyrians and Armenians among its population.

Christine Melkonyan, scientific worker at the Department of Turkey at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences, says that the mayor of Diarbekir, initiating this event, first, wanted to promote the development of the region, and secondly – the improvement of relations with Armenians.

“Turkish nationalists criticized the policy held by mayor Baydemir, Kurdish by origin. They are sure that Baydemir holds a pro-Armenian policy,” Melkonyan says. “The government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan does not support this process, but does not hinder, either, because of concerns over the response of the international community.”