Citizen of Turkey, painter and sculptor of Armenian descent Erol Sarafian has been painting the portraits of Turkey’s several high-ranking officials since 1997, starting from Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who was the founder and first president of the Republic of Turkey, reports Ermenihaber.

On October 25, Erol Sarafian will open his ninth personal exhibition at the St. Mary Church in Gumgapu. As reported on the Turkish Haberip website, among the 40 portraits will be the portraits of Ataturk, President Recep Tayyib Erdogan, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, ex-president Abdullah Gul and other state officials. Vicar of the Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, Archbishop Aram Ateshian is also invited to the opening of the exhibition.

Erol Sarafian was born in 1937 in Istanbul to a family of architects. He received his higher education at the Istanbul Academy of Arts. Safarian has been granted a medal by the Vatican for his portrait of Pope of Rome Paul II and has donated that painting to the Museum of the Vatican.