Surb Khach (Holy Cross) Church on Aghtamar Island in Turkey will be reopened as a house of worship next September.

In 2006, Turkey reopened the church as a museum. A cross, however, was not put on the top of the church in the Islamic republic; one will be put next year, when on September 12, it will start operating as a church.

Munir Karaoglu, Mayor of Van, Turkey (Western Armenia), told Hürriyet daily that soon after the church is opened, it will become a site of pilgrimage for many Armenians living all over the world.

Turkish studies specialist Artak Shakaryan says that the opening of the church is the result of “Turkey’s smart tactics.”

“Even if the Armenian-Turkish protocols are not ratified, Turkey will be able to say that it is tolerant, and that it performs a ‘kind gesture’ towards Armenians,” Shakaryan told ArmeniaNow.

Ruben Safrastyan, Director of the Institute of Oriental Studies at the National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, also shares the viewpoint that, in fact, Armenian churches are not preserved in Turkey, and the opening of Surb Khach Church is “a formal gesture.”

“There are thousands of churches in Turkey, which have been systematically destroyed. The destruction of Armenian churches continues up to now,” Safrastyan says.