Residents in Akbük have called for the village’s presently closed Greek Orthodox Church to be restored to its original state and opened to tourism.

The historical church, which was built in the 1870s during the Ottoman period and continued its function until the beginning of the Republic, remained idle after the Greeks migrated to Greece as a result of the population exchange.

After a while, it was learned the church was converted into a school by creating a mezzanine floor, and it was restored in 2007 by the then Mayor of Akbük, İbrahim Şam, which was a municipality before 2014, after the decorations and plasters in the church, which remained neglected for years, were damaged.

After the restoration, with the permission obtained once, the door of the church where the marriage ceremony of an Assyrian couple was held was later locked.

The building of two walls of the church caused reactions, and then Aydın Culture and Tourism Provincial Director M. Umut Tuncer made an investigation and filed a criminal complaint about the issue. Although the walls surrounding the main doors of the church were removed, no steps were taken regarding the church in the past period.

The people of Akbük, on the other hand, want the church, one of the most important symbols of Akbük, to be restored to its original form and to be used for tourism.

The people of Akbük held a meeting among themselves to discuss the latest situation of the church and the steps to be taken in this regard, and it was learned that relevant institutions will be visited in the coming period.