Turkey denies news stories on Yerevan-Van direct flights

Technical preparations are underway, the Turkish Foreign Ministry spokesman Levent Bilman said at a weekly press briefing while commenting on the inauguration of the church, which is on Akdamar Island on Van Lake.

The Akdamar Church was constructed between 915 AD to 921 AD under the supervision of King Gagik I and it was renovated by a Turkish company in 2006.

The Church will be opened on March 29. Among the important pieces of Armenian architecture, the church draws attraction with its stone workmanship and reliefs on its walls, the semi-official Anatolia news agency reported.

Earlier, Van Governor Niyazi Tanilir said that an international inauguration ceremony would be held, noting that culture ministers of several countries, members of national and international media organizations and representatives of Armenian community around the world are expected to participate in the ceremony.

Turkey and Armenia have no formal diplomatic relations and their border has been closed since 1993 because of the Armenia's conflict with Azerbaijan, a key Turkish ally, over the disputed enclave of Nagorno Karabakh.

Turkish-Armenia relations in modern times were also strongly affected by the alleged Armenia genocide during the Turkish Ottoman period between the Year 1915 and 1923.

Turkey has always denied that the Armenians were subjected to genocide in the period. However, it does acknowledge that up to 300,000 Armenians, and an even higher number of Muslims, died during fighting and efforts to relocate populations away from the war zone in eastern Turkey. Xinhua