Martyrs Church (Aleppo)

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Divine service in the Armenian Evangelical Martyrs Church in Aleppo , December 26, 2017
Divine service in the Armenian Evangelical Martyrs Church in Aleppo , December 26, 2017

The Aleppo Martyrs Church ( Arabic كنيسة الشهداء, Armenian Նահատակաց եկեղեցի ) is a church of the Armenian Evangelical Church in the Syrian city ​​of Aleppo in the Sulaimaniya district.

Location

The Armenian Evangelical Martyrs Church in Aleppo is located in the Sulaymaniya-Fillat district about 200 m south of the Armenian Catholic Trinity Church (Zvartnots) and 400 m east of the Armenian Apostolic Church of the Holy Mother of God .

history

The establishment of the Armenian Evangelical Martyrs Church in Aleppo-Sulaymaniyah goes back to refugees from Aintab (Այնթա, today Turkey ), where an Evangelical Armenian Church was established in 1865. This church grew rapidly and therefore divided into two parishes, one of them in the Kayajik district as before, the other in the Hayik district, and there were Protestant Armenian Christians in Aintab until 1921, when all Armenians were expelled from the city. Most of the displaced came to Aleppo, which was now part of the French Mandate Syria, and visited the newly built Armenian Evangelical Church of Immanuel . In 1930, 33 families from Aintab decided to form their own congregation, and in 1931 17 former congregation members of the former Armenian church Aintab-Hayik founded a new church in Aleppo, which they named the Church of the Martyrs (Nahadagatz jekeghezi, Նահատակաց den) after the victims of the genocide . The first pastor of this church was Hagop Chakmakjian and preached in an old courtyard near the al-Saliba church district in the al-Judaide district . The community later met in a rented building on Sulaymaniyah Street, also known as the "Armenian Red Cross Building." In 1960, the community in the Sulaymaniyah neighborhood purchased a church property and began construction. The church was officially consecrated on March 14, 1965. As early as the 1980s, the parish was losing more and more members due to emigration. The civil war in Syria since 2011 has led to mass exodus from Aleppo, so that of around 40,000 Armenians in Aleppo immediately before the war in 2015, only around 12,000 to 15,000 remained (or 14,000 to 15,000 in 2019). According to other sources, there were 77,000 Armenians in Aleppo before the war, the majority apostolic, as well as 17,500 Catholics and 1,500 Evangelicals. The pastor of the Armenian Evangelical Martyrs Church, Vatche Ekmekjian, left Syria in 2011 for Glendale (California) , where he now works as a marriage and family therapist and at the same time as an Evangelical pastor. Around 2000 people took part in a joint service of the three Armenian Evangelical Churches of Aleppo ( Bethel , Immanuel , Martyrs) in the Bethel Church on April 16, 2017 for the first Easter since the expulsion of the Islamists from Aleppo, led by Simon Der-Sahagian and Harutyun Selimian .

Architecture and equipment

Like other Protestant churches in Syria, the Martyrs Church is simple. It has a rectangular floor plan, a gable roof and large arched windows on the side facades.

literature

  • Sarkis Balabanian (Balaban Khoja): The Stormy and Calm Days of My Life (Autobiography of Sarkis Balabanian, 1982-1963). English translation [from Armenian] by Rev. Vatche Ekmekjian. Abril Books, Glendale (California) 2019. ISBN 978-0-578-45767-3

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Vatche Ekmekjian: Martyrs' Church, Aleppo . February 7, 2007 and Vatche Ekmekjian: Martyrs' Church, Aleppo . March 25, 2010. Vatche Ekmekjian was a pastor at Martyrs Church from 2003 to 2011 before leaving Syria and moving to Glendale. The events are described in detail in: Sarkis Balabanian (Balaban Khoja): The Stormy and Calm Days of My Life (Autobiography of Sarkis Balabanian, 1982-1963). English translation [from Armenian] by Rev. Vatche Ekmekjian. Abril Bookstore, Glendale (California) 2019.
  2. ^ Nerses Sarkissian ( ARF ): Surviving Aleppo: An Interview with Nerses Sarkissian. Armenian Weekly, December 9, 2015.
  3. ↑ Armen Sargsyan (Armenia's Consul General in Aleppo), in: Consul General: Only 14-15 thousand Armenians left from once a prosperous colony in Aleppo. Panorama on February 6, 2019.
  4. ↑ Spencer Osberg: Aleppo: A Syrian Mosaic - An ancient city is home to diverse faith communities. CNEWA, November 2009.
  5. ^ Immanuel ACC, Downey (CA), Pastoral Staff: Rev. Vatche Ekmekjian. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  6. ↑ Vatche Ekmekjian, Marriage & Family Therapist Associate, MS, M.Div., AMFT. Retrieved June 19, 2020.
  7. ^ Joint Easter Service at Armenian Evangelical Bethel Church. Report Easter in Aleppo, 2017, accessed June 19, 2020.

Coordinates: 36 ° 13 ′ 9 ″  N , 37 ° 9 ′ 45.5 ″  E