Armenian tour operator offers trip to Sourb Khach

Armenian citizens are already booking tickets for a trip to Van, eastern Turkey, to participate in a September 19 mass to be served in Sourb Khach (Saint Cross) - the iconic Armenian Church on Akhtamar Island in Lake Van, currently eastern Turkey.

The church will be reopened after almost a century since the Armenian Genocide in 1915 perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks in the breaking days of the Ottoman Empire.

The sole operator to organize a tour to Van in Armenia is Ani Tour which is planning to take its customers to Van province.
Ani Tour Assistant Manager Lusine Karapetyan told Tert.am that the tour package comprises 5 days, from September 17-11, and prices will start from $395 per person.

The buses will reach Turkey via Georgia because Turkey has in retaliation to Armenia and in solidarity with Azerbaijan closed the Turkish-Armenian border since 1993 during the horrendous war in Nagorno Karabakh.

Lusine Karapetyan also said that the company can offer the service to a limited number of customers (80) as there are not enough rooms in the hotels in Van.

Earlier there were reports that an estimated 6000 people are planning to attend the mass.