Boycott of the Controversial liturgy at Surp Khach church was successful
September 19 2010 at 3:54 PM No score for this post
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Although Turks claim there were 4000 visitors in the city of Van, on September 19 there were less than thousand for the liturgy celebration at the island church, many of those were not even Armenians, for example US Government send a representative for the liturgy. Most of the few hundred Armenians that were on the island were from Istanbul. The inside church had a capacity of 50 chairs, so all the pilgrims had to stay outside and listen and watch on a big screen for the liturgy. From a video made by Turkish Hurriyet you can see only some 500 or less people outside the church at the island in that video.
Delphine Strauss send the news to Financial Times on 19 September from Van, saying:
"Boats shuttled about 1,000 worshipers, including visitors from Istanbul, Yerevan, Iran and the US, to Akhtamar on Sunday, where tearful women lit candles and knelt to pray."