Municipality, Patriarchate renovate Armenian Cemetery

VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU
ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News
15/5/2011

A historical Armenian cemetery dating back to 1061 A.D. and measuring hundreds of acres in the eastern province of Sivas has been jointly renovated by the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey, the local municipality and the provincial governor’s office. A Muslim cemetery located in the area also underwent restoration as part of the project, which was conceived by Minas Durmazgüler, the leader of Sivas’s Armenian community.

The renovation effort is being carried out in collaboration with the Patriarchate under Durmazgüler’s supervision in the village of Tavra near Kumlutarla. Sivas Mayor Doğan Ürgüp told the Hürriyet Daily News that 70 percent of the cost of renovation was paid for by the municipality, while the remaining 30 percent was taken care of by the Patriarchate and the owners of the cemetery.

“Armenians from all corners of the world used to come to Sivas to visit the cemetery in the summer, but the cemetery was in such bad condition many visitors left feeling upset. This project is very important for many reasons,” said Durmazgüler, adding that their joint work with Ürgüp had been very effective.

Mayor Ürgüp said the Armenian cemetery was heavily damaged because of looters and treasure hunters in the area, and that they had enacted the required arrangements in accordance with Christian traditions with the help of the Patriarchate. Ürgüp said the Muslim cemetery was also neglected and in disrepair, but to make matters worse, it also bore the risk of wild fire because the untamed grass in the field caught fire during summer months.

The mayor also said the inscriptions on the gravestones were rewritten, new trees were planted, landscape arrangements were made and that cleanup work had been done. Mayor Ürgüp said their intention was to uncover the historical fabric of Sivas.

After the reopening of the Surp Haç Church on the island of Akdamar in Lake Van in eastern Turkey, restoration work was initiated on many Armenian churches and monasteries in Turkey through the collaborative efforts of local authorities and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Mayor Ürgüp claimed their restoration efforts bore no relation to these developments and further said he would have undertaken this project even if he had taken office a decade ago.

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