The website of the Turkish “Yeni Akit” nationalist newspaper touched upon the topic of the Armenian Church of the Holy Trinity, located in the Sivrihisar district of Turkey’s Eskisehir province. The church recently renovated by the Turkish Ministry of Culture is intended to serve for carrying out cultural events.
“Two saints are depicted at the top of the entrance of the church with two bell-towers, and there is an image of an angel beside the inscription below. There is a baptism room on the northern side of the church, decorated with visible and invisible frescoes, and priests’ room on the southern side.
1881 number is depicted at the top of each of the windows of the facade of the church. Inside the main entrance of the church, there is a section with 2 floors. Perhaps there was a choir on the second floor, believing women of the community were sitting on the one side of the 1st floor, and men on the other side”, the Turkish website writes.
According to the source, during the Crimean War of 1853-1856, Ottoman Sultan Abdul Mejid sultan inhabited a large number of Armenians in Sivrihisar. “About 4500 Armenians were inhabited in Sivrihisar. However, judging by the presence of gravestones dating back to the 1830’s, Armenians lived in Sivrihisar before that too. Armenians lived here until 1916. Their homes were on both sides of the mountain”, the source added.
Let us note that during the renovation, the Turkish Ministry of Culture has established a statue park of statues of about five dozen Turkish figures in the church territory. Statues of anti-Armenian historic figures such as Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and Kazim Karabekir were placed. There are also statues of cultural figures, poet Yasar Kemal, painter Abidin Dino and others.
Yeniakit.com.tr/ermenihaber.am
