Archive Images of Western Armenia

Nowadays almost every Armenian construction standing in Western Armenian region of Turkey is ruined. Some believe that Western Armenian churches have visible stylistic difference from temples in Republic of Armenia, and they look more like mosques.

They suggest that the form of the temples of Western Armenia on the territory of the Ottoman Empire has been directly influenced by Islamic traditions, and every following renovation brought more and more of the religion’s features to churches’ architecture.

It is quite possible, especially considering that the authorship of the lion’s share of the Ottoman architecture belongs to the Armenians. Are known whole Armenian dynasties of architects in the Ottoman Empire who built: mosques, theaters and other significant buildings.

In my opinion, that the main reason for the differences in the church architecture of the Western part of Armenia from the Eastern one is that the Churches in Western Armenia were built on the site of the Ancient Pagan temples. There are more such temples in Western Armenia than in Eastern.

This is also evidenced by the archaeological excavations carried out recently, and traces of the “work” of robbers and marauders who are constantly digging near the Ancient Armenian buildings in search of treasure.

In reality, the Turkish government deliberately announces a treasure hunt, that to finally destroy the traces of Armenians from the territory of Historical Armenia occupied by the Turks.

Surb Grigor Monastery on the Lim island in lake Van has a conical dome, which is very similar to the dome of the tomb of Persian Sunni Muslim poet Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Rūmī (more popularly simply as Rumi) in Konya. Rumi’s tomb was completed in 1274, whereas the dome of the Surb Grigor church was built after 1310.