Ergün Ayık, head of the Sourp Giragos Church Foundation, has told Hürriyet Daily News that a building within the church’s complex would be transformed into a museum highlighting the history of Armenians in the Diyarbekir region.

The foundation president said the museum would be formed from personal belongings and called for the Armenians, who possessed objects from their ancestors, to send them to the Sourp Giragos Church Foundation.

Ayık said that he had met with Diyarbekir Mayor Osman Baydemir and the Diyarbekir Culture and Tourism Directorate, and reached an agreement whereby the Armenian Culture and Arts section of the Diyarbekir City Museum, which is to open in a newly renovated historical building, would be opened within the Sourp Giragos Church.

He said the items collected would be transferred to the inventory of the foundation pending the signing of a protocol for the museum.

Ayık said that until four years ago, the only remaining trace of Diyarbekir's Armenians was two ruined churches in the city, adding that Armenians had lived in the region for “thousands of years” and had built a “big kingdom.”