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The St. Giragos Armenian Church located in the Sur district of Diyarbakir, Turkey, will be restored four years after being damaged in the clashes between the Turkish and Kurdish forces in 2015.

A number of other historical buildings in the district have also suffered damages in the clashes, with some of them already restored, including the Armenian Protestant Church in Diyarbakir, Ermenihaber reported.

The church will be restored with the funds of the Turkish Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning at the proposal of the heads of local community foundations.

Sur Governor Abdullah Ciftci said the church renovation works will launch next year.

The St. Giragos Church was built in 1376. The belfry of the largest church in the Near East was destroyed in 1913 by lightning, after which the Armenians built a new belfry with a bell made from gold and copper. However, in 1915, the Turks struck the bell at the spot that lightning had struck it. They destroyed the belfry just because it stood taller than the towers of the mosques nearby.

The church was renovated with the funds of the local Armenian community and the local Kurdish-controlled municipality of the time and reopened in 2011 after 32 years of inactivity but was seriously damaged four years later.