Churches in Turkey on the Verge of ExtinctionOne of the common features of the Ottoman Empire and modern Turkey seems to be their intolerance of churches.While Eastern Orthodox Christians recently celebrated their Easter holy week, a historic church in Istanbul -- the once magnificent Christian city of Constantinople -- is witnessing yet another abuse at the hands of its current authorities.
"The historic Istanbul cathedral and museum, Hagia
Sophia, witnessed its first Quran recitation under its roof after 85
years Saturday," reported
the state-run Anatolian News Agency of Turkey. "The Religious Affairs
Directorate launched the exhibition "Love of Prophet," as part of
commemorations of the birth of Islamic Prophet Muhammad."
Even though Christians are a tiny minority in Turkey
today, Christianity has a long history in Asia Minor, the birthplace of
many Christian Apostles and Saints, including Paul of Tarsus, Timothy,
Nicholas of Myra, and Polycarp of Smyrna.
All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils were held in
what is today Turkey. Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the
ancient Pentarchy -- Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya) --
are also situated there. Antioch was the place where, for the first
time, the followers of Jesus were called "Christians."
Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where
were sent the Revelations to John. During the centuries that followed,
countless churches were established throughout the region.
One of them, Hagia Sophia, was once the grandest
cathedral in the Christian world -- until the fall of Constantinople to
the Ottomans on May 29, 1453, followed by three days of unbridled
pillage.[1]
Hagia Sophia was not exempt. Pillagers made their way to
the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors. Trapped in the church,
congregants and refugees became spoils to be divided among the Ottoman
invaders.
The historian Steven Runciman writes in The Fall of Constantinople, 1453:
After the fall of the city, the Hagia Sophia Church was converted into a mosque.
A mosque with the name Hagia Sophia (in Greek Ἁγία
Σοφία, "Holy Wisdom") is possible if the church is brought under the
control of an Islamic theocracy. It is like having a mosque called "the
Armenian Mosque of the Holy Cross".
In the 1930s, the Turkish government made it into a
museum. But turning a church into a museum is also not a trait of a
truly democratic state. One of the common features of the Ottoman Empire
and modern Turkey seems to be their intolerance of churches.
In 2013, Turkey's Deputy Prime Minister, Bulent Arinc, expressed his hope to see the Hagia Sophia Museum be used as a mosque, and even referred to it as the "Hagia Sophia Mosque."
"Turkey is not converting churches into mosques because
there is a need for more mosques, and Turkey does not have the resources
to build them," wrote Constantine Tzanos.
"The message conveyed by those in Turkey who have achieved the
conversion of Christian churches into mosques and demand the conversion
of Hagia Sofia is that Turkey is an Islamic state and no other religion
is tolerated."
In November 2014, Pope Francis paid the fourth ever visit of a Pope to Turkey. Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgic told reporters
that during the trip, the issue of an "alliance of civilizations,
dialogue between cultures, xenophobia, the fight against racism and
political developments in the region" would be on the agenda.
The agenda of Pope Francis should actually have included
the churches of Turkey that have been destroyed, damaged or converted
into many things, including stables -- like the historical Armenian
Gregoryan Church in the province of Izmir (Smyrna). "Some citizens put
their cows and horses inside the church, while the inhabitants of the
neighborhood complain that the church has been turned into a site of
drug addicts and alcoholics," reported the newspaper Milliyet.
Another victim of Turkey's intolerance of churches, the
Agios Theodoros Byzantine Church in Istanbul, was first converted into a
mosque during the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II; it was named
after Mollah Gurani, the fourth Sheikh-ul-Islam (the authority that
governed religious affairs of the Muslims in the Ottoman Empire).
It was reported
in March 2014 that the entrance area of the former church-mosque has
become a "house," and its upper story turned into a "flat." A shanty has
been built inside its garden. The priest's room is now a toilet.
Centuries later, the habits of Ottoman Turks seem not to have changed.
Today, Turkey has less Christians as a percentage of its
population than any of its neighbors -- less than Syria, Iraq and Iran.
The greatest cause of this was the Assyrian, Armenian and Greek slaughters or genocides between 1915 and 1923.
At least 2.5 million indigenous Christians of Asia Minor
were killed -- either massacred outright, or victims of deportations,
slave labor or death marches. Many of them died in concentration camps
of diseases or starvation.
Many Greeks who survived the slaughter were driven from
their homes in Asia Minor in the 1923 forcible population exchange
between Turkey and Greece.
The physical devastation was followed by a cultural
devastation. Throughout the history of the Turkish Republic, countless
Christian churches and schools have been destroyed or turned into
mosques, storehouses and stables, among other things.
The columnist Raffi Bedrosyan reported in the Armenian Weekly that
Walter Flick, a scholar with the International Society for Human Rights in Germany, says that the Christian minority in Turkey does not enjoy the same rights as the Muslim majority.
"Turkey has almost 80 million inhabitants," he said.
"There are only around 120,000 Christians, which is less than 1 percent
of the population. Christians are certainly seen as second-class
citizens. A real citizen is Muslim, and those who aren't Muslim are seen
as suspicious."
According to a 2014 survey, 89% of the Turkish
population said that what defines a nation is belonging to a certain
religion. Among the 38 countries that participated in the question of if
belonging to a specific religion [Islam] is important in defining the
concept of a nation, Turkey, with 89% of its population agreeing, ranked
number one in the world. [3]
"In some ways, Ankara's policies against Turkey's
Christian citizens have added a modern veneer and sophisticated
brutality to Ottoman norms and practices," wrote
political scientist Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou and historian Dr.
Alexandros K. Kyrou. "In the words of an anonymous Church hierarch in
Turkey fearful for the life of his flock, Christians in Turkey are an
endangered species."
On April 4, 1949, the signers of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in Washington D.C. announced:
"The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and
principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live
in peace with all peoples and all governments. They are determined to
safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their
peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and
the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the
North Atlantic area. They are resolved to unite their efforts for
collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security."
Being part of the European Union and NATO requires
respecting the Jewish, Christian, Hellenic and secular humanist values
that have characterized Western Civilization, and contributed to civil
rights, democracy, philosophy and science, from which everyone can
benefit.
Sadly, Turkey, a NATO member since 1952 and reportedly a
candidate for membership in the European Union, has largely succeeded
in destroying the entire Christian cultural heritage of Asia Minor.
All this is reminiscent of what ISIS and other jihadist
armies have been doing in the Middle East. In Turkey, the remaining
Christian population, the grandchildren of genocide survivors, are still
exposed to discrimination. The old habits of Ottoman Turks do not seem
to die.
[1] Runciman, Steven (1965). The Fall of Constantinople, 1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [2] Ibid. [3] In 2014, Professor Ersin Kalaycioglu of Sabanci University and Professor Ali Carkoglu of Koc University conducted a survey, "Nationalism in Turkey and in the world," based on interviews with Turkish citizens above the age of 18 in 64 cities across Turkey. "So according to [Turkish] citizens in the streets, a Turk is the one who is a Muslim," said Prof. Carkoglu. |
Labels: Christianit, Islamism, Turkey
posted by Pieface @ Sunday, April 19, 2015
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