ÉGLISE SOURP STEPANOS

This small Armenian Apostolic church (Εκκλησία Αγίου Στεφάνου/Ekklesia Agiou Stefanou, St. Stephen's Church) was erected between 1912 and 1913 and consecrated in 1918. While it has little architectural interest, it is an important place in Armenian history. The rectangular building, built of ashlar, consists of a single nave of 15 m in length, which ends with a gabled bell tower and an apse. It was built by Orthodox Armenians who fled the massacres committed by the Ottomans in 1909 in Cilicia, around the city of Adana (south of present-day Turkey, opposite the eastern tip of Cyprus). It is dedicated to Saint Stephen, protector of Adana. There are icons painted in 1998 by the Lebanese-Armenian priest Hovsep Hovsepian (born 1961). In the courtyard was installed in 2011 a khachkar, a stele of red tuff finely chiseled and decorated with a cross typical of Armenian religious art. The pediment bears an inscription: "In memory of the martyrs of Cilicia, April¹, 1909". In this respect, the Sourp Stepanos church is considered the first monument of the Armenian genocide (1.2 to 1.5 million dead). It is true that the genocide took place in 1915-1916, i.e. after the construction of the church. But the 1909 massacres in Cilicia (about 30,000 dead), to which the inscription refers, were the prelude to the genocide. Today, Larnaka is home to the majority of the Armenian community of Cyprus (about 3,500 people) whose presence dates back to the sixth century.