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

The renovation has been initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Urban Planning. Sur Governor Abdullah Ciftci said 30 million Turkish liras have been provided for restoration of four churches in the region, Ermenihaber reported.

The renovation works are expected to end in late 2020.

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.