The Orthodox Church Info blog reports today (October 24, 2011) that a group of Armenians -- raised as Sunni Muslims -- were baptized on October 23 as Armenian Orthodox Christians at the historic St. Kirakos Armenian Orthodox Church in the Western Armenian province of Diyarbakir (current Turkish property).
The church -- which was reopened on October 22 following two years of restoration work -- hosted the baptism ceremony for dozens of Sunni Muslims of Armenian origin, whose ancestors converted to Islam during the World War I (1914-1918) killings of over a million Armenians in the Ottoman era.
The baptism ceremony was closed to the press and outside visitors -- and the names of those baptized were not revealed -- for security reasons.
Among the participants in yesterday's ceremony were former foreign minister of Armenia and leader of Armenia's Heritage Party, Raffi Hovhannesian, U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Francis Ricciardione, and Archbishop Vicken Ayvazian, diocese of the Armenian Orthodox Church of America.
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