Turkey lashes out at Congress over Christian churches bill
- Jul 1, 2014
- 2 min read
The House Foreign Affairs panel easily passed a bill demanding Turkey return confiscated churches on June 27. Turkey vehemently criticized Congress over the bill, and wasted no time in denouncing what it called the bill’s “groundless criticism, false information and baseless accusations” and accused lawmakers of caving to ethnic lobbies.
Legislation requiring the State Department to report on the status of “stolen, confiscated or otherwise unreturned” churches and other Christian properties in Turkey and northern Cyprus sailed through the House Foreign Affairs Committee on a voice-vote June 26.
“Attempts by anti-Turkish circles in the US Congress, driven by domestic political considerations, to push such unconstructive and baseless initiatives are unacceptable,” the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried on the website of the Turkish Embassy in Washington.
So, where are these lost or stolen Armenian churches in Turkey? How many were there before 1915, the turning point in the Armenians’ world, when they were uprooted and wiped out from their homeland of more than 3,000 years? How many churches are there now?
Considering that every Armenian community invariably strove to build a school beside its church, how many Armenian schools were there in Turkey before 1915, and how many are there now?
How many Armenian churches and schools are left standing now in Turkey is the easier part of the issue: There are only 34 churches and 18 schools left in Turkey today, mostly in Istanbul, with about less than 3,000 students in these schools. The challenging and frustrating issue is how many were there in the past.
Recent research pegs the number of Armenian churches in Turkey before 1915 at around 2,300. The number of schools before 1915 is estimated at nearly 700, with 82,000 students.
These numbers are only for churches and schools under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate and the Apostolic Church, and therefore do not include the numerous churches and schools belonging to the Protestant and Catholic Armenian parishes.
The American colleges and missionary schools, mostly attended by Armenian youth, are also excluded from these numbers. The number of Armenian students attending Turkish schools or small schools at homes in the villages are unknown and not included.
Finally, these numbers do not include the churches and schools in Kars and Ardahan provinces, which were not part of Turkey until 1920, and were part of Russia since 1878.
The lists for the Armenian churches and schools are by no means complete, but should be regarded as a preliminary study that can serve as foundation for further research. The place names are based on the old Ottoman administrative system, instead of that of modern Turkey.
They are ably assembled by Zakarya Mildanoglu, from various sources such as the Ottoman Armenian National Council Annual reports, Echmiadzin Journal, Vienna Mkhitarists, and studies by Teotig, Kevorkian, and Nishanyan.
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