AFP: Turkish officials cite bureaucratic procedures behind delay in installation of cross

October 4, 2010 - 09:57 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Sept. 19 service at Holy Cross Church on Akhtamar Island in Van province drew roughly 1,000 worshippers but was boycotted by the Armenian Apostolic Church because Turkey had failed to put the cross in place in time for the ceremony.

Turkish officials had said at the time that the delay was due to bureaucratic procedures for any work done on the building, which is listed as a historical monument.

Workers installed the cross atop the church on October 2.

Following the completion of the bureaucratic procedures, workers hoisted the two-meter-high cast-iron cross, weighing about 110 kilograms, onto the dome after it was blessed by clergy from the Istanbul-based Armenian patriarchate.

On October 1, hundreds of Turks prayed at the Ani ruins in the eastern province of Kars at the call of the country’s largest nationalist party. The prayers, which were held at an Armenian cathedral that was converted into a mosque in 1054, were largely seen as a response to the church service.

The event drew condemnation from the Holy See of Etchmiadzin, the seat of the Armenian Apostolic Church, as a “political provocation”, AFP reported.