Turkey to begin second restoration of historical Armenian church

The Armenian Akdamar Church, located on Akdamar Island on Lake Van, is scheduled to be restored again as part of a project in line with preservation programs which have been recently completed by the Turkish government. Turkey finished the restoration of the historical Armenian church of Akdamar on Lake Van last year. A mass ceremony was also held at Akdamar last fall, which was attended by thousands of Armenian worshippers throughout the world and the Armenian community of Turkey and led by Archbishop Aram Ateshian of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey. The second restoration project which is set to begin in April 2013 is expected to take six months with a cost of approximately TL 1.2 million.