Turkey has made progress by turning churches into museums not cattle sheds

Turkey and the Turkish Government have not changed, head of local Armenian movement Miasin (Together) Hakob Hakobyan said at a liturgy served in Tsitsernakaberd - the hilltop memorial in Yerevan dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Armenian Genocide.

The mass was served in Yerevan as an alternative to the one in Sourb Khach Church (Saint Cross) in Van, Eastern Turkey, held today almost a decade later after the Armenian Genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Turks in 1915.

Recalling a recent incident, when a Turkish policeman did not allow a group of Armenian kids to pray out loud and light candles in Sourb Khach, Mr. Hakobyan said that the Turks have renamed Akhtamar Island in Lake Van, calling it now "Akdamar" which means "white vein" in Turkish.

Further he mentioned that the Armenian Genocide is effectively going on now too.

"What is that [meaning the mass in Sourb Khach] if not the continuation of the genocide. They are trying to mislead the international community, to hinder the international recognition of the Armenian Genocide," said he.

According to him, turkey is making attempts to show the world that it has become more democratic.

"Of course, they are democratic, they are turning a church into a museum instead of a cattle shed," said he, calling on the all the members of the movement present at the mass in Tsitsernakaberd to say "Turkey shame on you."

With that words hardly pronounced all those present followed suit.

"Shame! Shame!"