or any Foreign Consul" by Clarence Ussher and Ernest Yarrow, American missionaries in Van, said that "From our window we could plainly see Shushantz afire on its mountain-side and Varak Monastery, with its priceless store of ancient manuscripts, going up in smoke." However, a fellow missionary, Elizabeth Barrows Ussher, Clarence Ussher's wife, wrote in her diary that the monastery was attacked by 200 cavalry and foot soldiers on 30 April, but they were repulsed. She gave 4 May as the day the monastery was burned. Another missionary teacher, Grace H. Knapp, recounted, however, that "On the 8th May we saw the place in flames, and Varak Monastery near by, with its priceless ancient manuscripts, also went up in smoke." Current state A significant number of the structures surviving the 1915 destruction were destroyed in the 1960s. As of 2006, the monastery's remains were used as a barn. According to historian Ara Sarafian, as of 2012, "good sections have just barely survived until our days." Dr. Jenny B. White, a scholar on Turkey, wrote in 2013 that, on her visit, the remains of the monastery "consisted of nothing more than a few brick vaults used to house goats amid a clutch of tumbledown Kurdish homes." The best-preserved section of the monastery is the church of Surb Gevorg (St. George), which is now looked after by a caretaker. The dome is partly collapsed and contains some traces of surviving frescoes. The dome of the church of Surb Nshan is entirely gone. In February 2010, following the renovation of the Holy Cross Cathedral at Akdamar Island in Lake Van, Halil Berk, the Deputy Governor of Van Province, announced that the Governor's Office sought to restore Varagavank and the Ktuts monastery at Çarpanak Island. In June of that year, the governor also stated that the monastery at Çarpanak Island and Varagavank would be renovated "in the near future." In October 2010, Radikal reported that a nearby mosque, built in 1997, would be demolished to make room for the restoration of Varagavank. The monastery was damaged as a result of the 2011 Van earthquake. According to Ara Sarafian, "parts of the main church collapsed, while other parts were significantly weakened. Old cracks got bigger, new ones appeared." Turkish engineers reportedly inspected it and announced that they would commence restoration work in the spring of 2012. Sarafian wrote that "such promises have been made in the