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Address Tepebaşı Mahallesi, 27010 Şahinbey/Gaziantep, Turkey Similar Şirvani Mosque, Boyacı Mosque, İzzet Mehmet Pasha M, Grand Mosque of Mersin, Veled‑i Yaniç 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. It was built as an Armenian Apostolic Church but, after the Armenian Genocide, was converted into a mosque. Sarkis Balyan, the Ottoman-Armenian architect of Sultan Abdulhamid II, designed the church. Construction started in 1892, undertaken by the stonemason Sarkis Taşçıyan. The church was part of a complex that also contained a school and administrative buildings of the dioceses of the kaza of Antep.
In 1915, almost all Armenians of Gaziantep were deported to Syrian desert during the Armenian Genocide. The church stood empty and then was used as a prison around the 1920s. It remained a prison into the 1970s, until it was converted into a mosque in 1980. 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.