A set of secretly taken photographs show Diyarbakir’s Surp Giragos Armenian Apostolic Church in descretion, the Armenian Weekly reports.

The church has been off limits to the public since the most recent clashes between the Turkish military and Kurdish fighters in Diyarbakir.

The photographs were taken in July 2017.

Armenians from around the world flocked to Surp Giragos on Oct. 22, 2011, to attend both the consecration of the largest Armenian Church in the Middle East and the Badarak held the following day. The church had been recently renovated by the Surp Giragos Armenian Foundation, with the support of the local Kurdish-controlled municipality of the time.

During the past two tumultuous years, the church has been desecrated and largely damaged, as the photographs show.des

The beautiful memorial of the Armenian Genocide Villeurbanne which had been inaugurated by Mayor Jean-Paul Bret April 23, 2005, on the eve of the commemoration of its 90th anniversary was desecrated on July 3. Vandals have attacked the particular entry made of steel letters that were embedded in the stone. Some of these letters were torn and twisted others to deface the phrase “recognize the Armenian genocide.”

This outrage is another attack on the memory of the million and a half Armenians were exterminated in 1915 under the direction of Young Turk government. It is part of the long list of sacrilegious actions against the victims of this crime which is still not recognized by the Turkish state and continues to do its part the subject of a militant denial. This new affront to the dignity of the dead rests the issue of criminalization of denial of the Armenian genocide and the adoption of a new law on this subject, as there are committed repeatedly authorities.

Photos reveal desecration of Armenian church in Turkey

Desecration of the memorial of the Armenian Genocide in Villeurbanne