kurtuluş camii

• 11 eylül 2012 tarihinde camiyi ziyaret eden raffi bedrosyan'ın verdiği bilgiler şöyle:
  
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  antep surp asdvadzadzin armenian church (holy mary) - converted to kurtulus camii (liberation mosque). it is the biggest church, and now the biggest mosque in antep. it is designed by sarkis balyan and built by his disciple sarkis tasciyan in 1873-1892. it has an area of 1100 m2 and a height of 30 meters. armenians of antep were partially massacred and the rest deported in 1915. the survivors returned after 1918 and trusting the french who had occupied antep, tried to reclaim their properties. but the french could not resist the turkish forces and abandoned the armenians to their fate, who had to be massacred and deported a second time in 1921. this church, the biggest armenian church in ayntap/antep/gaziantep remained vacant for some time, and in 1930, it was converted to a jail. three floors of jail cells were installed inside the church building. it remained as a jail building until 1980, when a new jail was built on the outskirts of antep. a wealthy pious muslim turk bought the building and donated it to the religious affairs directorate in 1984, on the condition that it be converted to a mosque. with restorations completed in 1988, it became kurtulus camii, the liberation mosque. when we visited on september 11, 2012, the imam explained his version of turkish history: 'armenians chose the wrong side, the french, and aimed their guns at the turks. when the french lost the war, the armenians had to leave as they couldn't face living with the turks.' when we asked about 1915, he said he didn't know much about 1915, but requested that we provide books on 1915, so that he will learn the truth and not repeat the wrong official version to other visitors.
  
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  tema:
  (bkz: ermeni soykırımı/@derinsular)