Armenian church

Armenian church

In Samarkand, the Armenian cultural and national center was opened at the Armenian church of St. Astvatsatsin (Holy Mother of God. The Armenian church of Samarkand, opened in 1903, was nationalized in 1933. During almost the entire Soviet period, various secular institutions were stationed here. The Armenian community was not returned to the church until 1996. After this, a clergyman was sent to Samarkand from Etchmiadzin. According to the news agency, the new cultural center will assist Samarkand Armenians in learning their native language. “The incentive for representatives of the diasporas to enrich the vocabulary will be the most rated programs of Armenian television, for which the satellite dishes of the center are tuned,” Ferghana news agency reported. In Samarkand today there are about 12 thousand Armenians. According to the information of the encyclopedia of the Ayazg Foundation, the Church of the Holy Mother of God was built in 1903 with the funds of Samarkand Armenians – the descendants of Armenian artisans, whom Tamerlan transported from the conquered Armenia in the 15th century. The first rector of the church was the priest Father Ruben Bekgulyants, who made the greatest contribution to the project of building a church. In 1905, the school opened a school. The Church of the Holy Mother of God and the parish school continued to function in Soviet times: they baptized and crowned, sang the deceased and celebrated all church holidays, taught children of Armenian history and culture. However, in 1933 the church was closed to worship. In 1991, at the request of Samarkand Armenians, the apostle of the Armenian Apostolic Church, Catholicos Vazgen I sent priests Ter-Artak and Ter-Avetis to Samarkand. Thanks to them, the Armenians baptized the children again, the ceremonies of weddings and funeral services were held in the church, religious holidays were celebrated, and the priests acquainted local Armenians with the canons of the Armenian Apostolic Church, which helped the Samarqandians to join the life and traditions of their historical homeland. On the bell tower of the church on May 23, 1995, the cross was again installed and the bells were suspended. The solemn ceremony of re-consecration and the opening of the only Armenian church in Central Asia took place on August 20 of the same year. Since then, Surb Astvatsatsin again fulfills its functions, becoming the spiritual home of Armenians in the whole region.