If Turkey is plans to restore Armenian churches and turn them into museums, let it not, as it means “capturing a renovated structure,” Giro Manoyan, Head of the Hay Dat office, Armenian Revolutionary Federation (ARF), told reporters on September 20. He pointed out that all the monuments presently located in Turkey belonged to two legal entities, the Armenian Patriarchate in Turkey and the Catholicosate of Cilicia, under the Ottoman Empire.

Responding to NEWS.am’s question as to whether the ARF is going to sponsor the renovation of Armenian monuments in Turkey, Manoyan said that the party’s demands do not at all mean it is obliged to sponsor the renovation. The point is the restoration of rights Turkey has to date violated – the renovation is Turkey’s duty, he said.

Responding to NEWS.am’s question as to whether Turkey has any commitments to renovate Armenian monuments, Manoyan said it has. “Certainly, under the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey pledged to allow non-Islamic national minorities to maintain their centers of worship. It does not mean the Turkish state must renovate them, but the same state has denied these people their right since at least 1970s,” he said.

Turkey must assume the responsibility for the monuments destroyed since the bloody 1915, Manoyan said.