Liberation Mosque

Liberation Mosque (Turkish: Kurtuluş Camii), formerly the St Mary's Church Cathedral or Holy Mother of God Church (Armenian: Սուրբ Աստուածածին Եկեղեցի, Turkish: Surp Asdvazdadzin Kilisesi), is located in the Tepebaşı district of Gaziantep in Turkey.[1] It was built as an Armenian Church but, after the Armenian Genocide, it was converted into a storage building and later, it was converted into a jail.[1] Sarkis Balyan, the Ottoman-Armenian architect of Sultan Abdulhamid II, designed the church. Construction started in 1892, undertaken by the stonemason Sarkis Taşçıyan.[2] The church was part of a complex which also contained a school and the administrative buildings of the dioceses of the kaza of Antep.[3]

Holy Mother of God Armenian Church as depicted in a photograph in 1920.

In 1915, almost all of the Armenians of Gaziantep were deported to Syrian desert during the liberation war.[4] The church stood empty and during the 1920s it was used as a prison. It remained a prison into the 1970s,[5] until it was converted into a mosque in 1986.[1] The top half of the bell tower was demolished, the remainder converted into a single-balcony minaret. The bell, which was cast in the 19th century in South America, was taken to Gaziantep Museum.