“We want-oh mother -we want no mosques, no hodjas to call out, (oh, sweet mother, our lady aid us) We only want St. Sophia, the great Monastery”
From a Greek Song “We want no mosques here”
The Most Holy Theotokos (Mother of God) came to be viewed as the protector of Constantinople after the successful defeat by the Empire of the Avars after 626 AD. Enemy combatants described seeing a woman over the walls of the City during the fighting near the blachernae section of the city. There was a Church (and still is) dedicated to the Theotokos at that part of the city. An all night vigil was held in that Church asking for her intervention to save the City. The Icon of the Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia) of God. The Great Church of Constantinople is named for the wisdom of Christ Hagia Sophia in use as a Mosque during the Ottoman Empire. This image is French and dates to 1719.
Greek political poster from the Balkan Wars of 1912 to 1913. Prime Minister Eleutherios Venizelos led Greece to victory and presided over the liberation of Macedonia, Crete, and Epirus. I believe the woman he is picking up symbolizes Greece. The Angel on top is bringing in the new year of 1913. Note on the left the image of the Parthenon at Athens. On the right the double headed eagle over the image of Hagia Sophia. Greece was supposed to liberate the city.
Venizelos and his Ministers and Generals and Bishops of the Church in front of Hagia Sophia. In 1920 Herbert Adam Gibbons who reported on the campaign in Asia Minor and later sent news dispatches to the Christian Science Monitor documenting the genocide of the Greeks and Armenians published a biography of Venizelos. The last paragraph of the book.
“In the prayer of eight million Greeks, “Zeto Venizelos!” the aspirations of Hellenism are practically expressed. For if the Cretan lives, and continues to lead, he will accomplish what the greatest Meditteranean islander before him failed to accomplish. He will take possession of Constantinople.”
Venizelos lost the elections of December 1920 and Greece’s fortunes in Asia Minor collapsed. The Great Church awaits to become a Church once again…..someday
In 1453 the Orthodox Greeks in Constantinople were hoping that a miracle might prevent the fall of the City. It was not to be. Today we await again and place our hope in the Theotokos. I believe in miracles.
From another old Greek song on the Fall of Constantinople,
“Today the Churches chant, and all the monasteries, and Saint Sophia chants, the great monastery, A high voice came from the heavens, Saint Sophia is taken by the hand of infidels. Let the chanting stop and lower the sacred vessels, The Turks have taken the City”.
Considering the international attention on Hagia Sophia and my recent review of Elia Kazan’s masterpiece “America America” I have concluded the time is right for a review of a great Greek film. This film, “A Touch of Spice” was made in Greece and Turkey and was shown in the United States in 2005. The film is about a Greek family in Constantinople that were impacted by the expulsions of 1964.
The film tells the story of a boy and his parents who are forced to leave Constantinople by the Turkish authorities. At the time many Greeks with Hellenic citizenship were expelled from Turkey, and since they were married to Greeks native to Constantinople thousands of families were forced to leave their homes and their beloved city. Human Rights Watch in its 1992 publication “Denying Human Rights and ethnic identity the Greeks of Turkey” stated that 30,000 Greeks left Turkey after the initial deportations.
The film has wonderful Greek and Turkish actors and is filmed on location in Greece and Turkey. And yes there is a wonderful scene that includes Hagia Sophia. In addition, there is a great scene in which the boy lights a candle in a Greek Church in Constantinople.
It is a very sentimental and nostalgic film with elements of comedy. I will refrain from ruining the plot and simply recommend this film to be added to anyone’s Greek film collection with “America America”.
Here is a list I am compiling of films that include the city of Constantinople and/or Hagia Sophia. I will probably be adding to the list.
Council of Europe Condemns Hagia Sophia Conversion From Museum to Mosque
Αssociated Press
(AP Photo/Emrah Gurel)12/5/2020 Athens News Agency
BRUSSELS – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) on Friday condemned Turkey’s July 13 unilateral decision to change the status of the UNESCO-protected World Heritage Site of Hagia Sophia in Istanbul from a museum to a mosque.
PACE’s Committee on Culture, Science, Education & Media also adopted a written declaration, which says the decision is “a discriminatory step backwards, that clearly undermines Turkey’s secular identity and multicultural legacy.”
The Committee stresses that it “also runs counter to the Parliamentary Assembly’s core values and principles, particularly as regards interreligious and intercultural dialogue and the principle of living together.
Chairperson of the Greek Parliamentary Delegation to PACE Dora Bakoyannis, wrote on Twitter: “Europe takes a stand against Turkey’s systematic policy of violating democratic principles and values.”https://disqusservice.com/iframe/fallback/?position=top&shortname=ekirikas&position=top&anchorColor=%230000ee&colorScheme=light&sourceUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalherald.com%2Fcommunity_church_world%2Farthro%2Fcouncil_of_europe_condemns_hagia_sophia_conversion_from_museum_to_mosque-1347241%2F&typeface=serif&canonicalUrl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thenationalherald.com%2Fcommunity_church_world%2Farthro%2Fcouncil_of_europe_condemns_hagia_sophia_conversion_from_museum_to_mosque-1347241%2F&disqus_version=363c4ce
How a Historian Stuffed Hagia Sophia’s Sound Into a Studio
Bissera Pentcheva used virtual acoustics to bring Istanbul to California and reconstruct the sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music.
Hagia Sophia’s rededication as a Muslim place of worship, after decades as a museum, threatens to cloak its extravagantly reverberant acoustics.Credit…Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times
By Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim
July 30,2020
Turquoise carpets covered the marble floor, with its geometric designs. White drapes concealed the mosaic of the Virgin and Christ. Scaffolding obscured crosses and other Christian symbols.
Footage broadcast around the world last week captured some of these striking changes to Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine cathedral in Istanbul, which served as a mosque under Ottoman rule before becoming a museum in 1934. On the orders of Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, it is now once again used as a mosque.
But for a group of scholars, scientists and musicians, Hagia Sophia’s rededication as a Muslim place of worship threatens to cloak a less tangible treasure: its sound. Bissera Pentcheva, an art historian at Stanford University and an expert in the burgeoning field of acoustic archaeology, has spent the past decade studying the building’s extravagantly reverberant acoustics to reconstructthe sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music. Ms. Pentcheva argues that Hagia Sophia’s mystical brilliance reveals itself fully only if it is viewed as a vessel for animated light — and sound.
The building was reopened for worship for the first time in 86 years last week.Credit…Nevzat Yildirim/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images
“The void is a stage,” she said in a recent interview over Zoom.
Conducting research inside this contested monument has required a mixture of diplomacy, ingenuity and technology. Turkish authorities forbade singing inside Hagia Sophia, even when it was operated as a museum. Now that the building falls under the jurisdiction of religious authorities, that ban will harden, and further research may be even more difficult.
But Ms. Pentcheva’s existing work culminated last fall in the release of “The Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia,” an album that brings to life the stately mystery of Byzantine cathedral liturgy, bathed in the glittering acoustics of the space for which it was written — even though it was recorded in a studio in California.
For about 20 years, it has been possible to superimpose the acoustics of a particular space onto recorded music during postproduction. A pioneer was Altiverb, a plug-in software that draws on a large library of virtual spaces so that a recorded track can be retrofitted to seem like it was done in, for example, the Berlin Philharmonie or the King’s Chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza.
But in what has become known as live virtual acoustics, processors and speakers provide the acoustic feedback of a particular space in real time, so that musicians can adjust their performance as if they were really in another building.
Jonathan Abel, a consulting professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics at Stanford, devised a plan with Ms. Bissera that allowed her to capture vital information about the acoustic properties of Hagia Sophia with the help of a balloon, discreet recording equipment and a cooperative security guard.
In the winter of 2010, Ms. Pentcheva obtained permission to enter what was then a museum at dawn, when Istanbul was quiet. She persuaded a guard to stand in a spot that would have been occupied by singers during the Byzantine era and to pop a balloon. In the meantime, she stationed herself where a privileged member of the public might have experienced mass. Microphones captured the explosion of sound and the ensuing wash of reverberations.
Ms. Pentcheva was allowed to capture only four such pops over two visits. But those bursts of sound yielded a wealth of data.
One of the balloon pops in 2010 that helped Bissera Pentcheva capture the acoustics of Hagia Sophia.Credit…Bissera V. Pentcheva
“That little balloon pop brings back all the information about the material and the size of the space,” Mr. Abel said. “You can think of a human voice as being made up of a whole bunch of balloon pops. Each voice drags behind it a bunch of impulse responses, like streamers behind a wedding car.”
The balloon noises, along with maps of the interior, allowed Mr. Abel to identify what he called the acoustic fingerprint of the building, including the multidirectional refraction of sound as it bounces off the dome and marble colonnades. His computer simulation was then integrated into a set of microphones and speakers.
Thus the members of Cappella Romana, a vocal ensemble based in Portland, Ore., specializing in Byzantine chant, recorded “The Lost Voices” in a space that persuasively mimicked the acoustics of Hagia Sophia — with its luscious reverberation, cross echoes and amplification of particular frequencies.
Alexander Lingas, a musicologist and the music director of Cappella Romana, said that the live virtual acoustics were transformative to his understanding of the group’s repertory. The long reverberation time dictated slower tempos. Basses singing drones made subtle pitch adjustments to match frequencies of maximum resonance.
Mr. Lingas said that some pieces only “made sense” inside the simulated acoustics. One example featured on the album is a cherubic hymn that likens the singers to angels.
“The music is designed to convey that,” Mr. Lingas said. “But I remember editing this piece and thinking, ‘My, this is really strange.’” Yet, he added, as the group rehearsed it with the virtual acoustics, a pattern of repeated undulating motifs built up rippling momentum until, as he described it, “the sound essentially achieved liftoff.”
Ms. Pentcheva believed that in Byzantine cathedral chant, reverberation was key to invoking the divine presence. She pointed to the exuberant amount of melisma in the repertory, where a single syllable is stretched over multiple notes. In the liquid acoustics of Hagia Sophia, words sung in this way blur, the way a line drawn in ink bleeds on wet paper.
“Rather than containing this smearing of semantics, the music itself actually intensifies it,” Ms. Pentcheva said. “So there is this process of alienation and estrangement from the register of human language that happens in Hagia Sophia, and is a desired goal.”
In Greek Orthodox rites, Ms. Pentcheva argued, acoustics and chant interact in a way that “is not about sound carrying information, but sound precipitating experience. It is a fully corporeal investment.”
The recording provides a glimpse of that experience. Phrases chanted in unison leave a ghostly imprint. Rhythmic shudders and grace notes set off blurry squiggles of overlapping echoes. Chords unfurl in reverberant bloom.
The acoustic drama of Hagia Sophia would have unfolded alongside the changing light and curling smoke of burning incense, enveloping the senses. The effect is described in a 6th-century description of the building by Paul the Silentiary, an aristocrat and poet at the court of Justinian.
“He speaks about a human action that brings into presence the divine reaction, the divine voice,” Ms. Pentcheva said. “In a sense that is the reverberation of the space: After the human voice stops singing, the building continues.”
Patriarch Kyrill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church issued a public statement that was highly critical of the Turkish Government’s plans to convert Hagia Sophia into a Mosque. In addition, a group of scholars from around the world have signed a petition calling on the Turkish government to maintain the status quo in Hagia Sophia. This is on top of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s letter to President Erdogan of Turkey asking him to maintain the status quo of Hagia Sophia last week.
I have to say this is more like it. For too long there has been a silence in response to Turkish policies, and not just Hagia Sophia. As I have suggested on a previous post Hagia Sophia is going to create problems for Turkey. As I have written before, Hagia Sophia is hallowed ground. Violating that hallowed ground is creating serious problems for the Turkish government.
The wording in the petition was rather disappointing. There was too much emphasis on the Ottoman background of Hagia Sophia and not enough on the Byzantine-Greek Orthodox background. Still, it is a petition that is proving helpful in the opposition to the Turkish government’s plans for Hagia Sophia.
If President Erdogan remains committed to converting Justinian’s Church, he will be bringing much attention not only on Hagia Sophia, but on Turkey in general. He will be bringing more attention to the authoritarian nature of his regime. He will also be causing the further deterioration of Turkey’s image throughout the world.
Furthermore, Turkish-Russian relations may suffer should Erdogan persist in altering the status of the Great Church. It should be remembered that Turkish-Russian relations were good until Erdogan ordered the downing of a Russian plane over Syria. That nearly destroyed relations with Russia. Furthermore, the assassination of the Russian Ambassador in Ankara demonstrated the fervent anti Russian sentiment in Turkey because of Russian-Turkish differences in Syria.
Erdogan offered apologies to Russia over the downing of the Russian plane in order to repair relations with Moscow. It is uncertain what will happen if Turkish-Russian relations are diminished once again.
In any case, here are the relevant links. The Russian Patriarch’s statement is very strong.
“The greatest symbol of Christianity’s endless suffering at jihadi hands stands in Istanbul, a city I still prefer to call “Constantinople”. The greatest surviving monument of the first thousand years of Christianity is the Cathedral of Saint Sophia-Hagia Sophia- in the city’s compelling heart. Its magnificence is haunted and haunting even today, though profaned as a museum- after the humiliation of being used as a mosque for almost five centuries, until Ataturk secularized the building.”
Ralph Peters on National Review Online February 6, 2015
Revolutions that usher in a new era of government in a particular country are defined by their excesses. The Iranian Revolution was defined by the seizure of the American embassy in November 1979. The Nazi regime was largely defined by the book burning campaign organized by Minister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels in May 1933.
The Turkish Revolution may come to be defined by the Greek Orthodox Cathedral of Hagia Sophia should Ankara actually convert the now dormant Church (technically a Museum) into a Mosque. The Turkish Government has attracted a good deal of attention from western media over its announced plans to make Hagia Sophia a Mosque. Under the leadership of President Erdogan, the Revolutionary government has had no hesitation in glorifying itself.
On May 29 (the anniversary of the Fall of Constantinople) Turkey celebrated the conquest of the City. Former Turkish President Abdullah Gul has said that Hagia Sophia is the personal property of the conquering Sultan Mehmet II. Indeed, Mehmet II seems to have been rehabilitated in Turkey while the founder of the secular Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal has been displaced as Turkey’s national hero and founding father.
By claiming Hagia Sophia as part of the heritage of the Ottoman Empire and claiming it as a Mosque, Ankara is playing with fire. Hagia Sophia has brought negative attention upon Turkey. Ankara already has an image problem owing to its recent collaboration with, and support for the genocidal ISIS . Furthermore, President Erdogan attracted widespread condemnation when on a visit to Washington his bodyguards assaulted peaceful Armenian and Kurdish protesters.
President Erdogan has proven to be a highly disciplined individual when he needed to be. He could not have outmaneuvered the Generals, heirs of the Kemalist legacy had he not been capable of patience and self restraint. Regardless, the leader of Turkey’s Revolution has a tendency for poor judgement. Ordering the assault on those demonstrators in Washington was just one example. He has also nearly triggered wars in the past ten years with Israel, Russia, and the United States.
By insisting that Hagia Sophia belongs to the Ottoman legacy rather than the Greek Orthodox heritage of Byzantium, Erdogan is solidifying the image of Turkey as a center of Jihadism. The conversion of Hagia Sophia, should it eventually proceed will complete the unravelling of the last Revolution carried out by Kemal one century ago.
While Turkey continues to possess a certain strategic importance for both the United States and Russia, Ankara will be badly miscalculating if the regime believes that it can continue to carry the kind of uncritical and unconditional support that its Kemalist predecessors did. For example, Erdogan has destroyed Turkish relations with Israel. The Kemalist Generals worked hard over time to establish a strong working relationship with Israel.
The perception of Turkey in the west has changed dramatically in recent years. During the apogee of the reign of the Kemalists, western media was mostly uncritical of Turkey. With the advent of the Revolution media outlets that were once highly reliable allies of Turkey such as National Review and the Wall Street Journal now publish articles on the genocide of the Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians.
One Turkish Minister has suggested that at least some mosaics within Hagia Sophia should be painted over. Reports indicate that rugs have been ordered that will fit on the ground of Hagia Sophia. In 2016, Koranic prayers were heard within Hagia Sophia but now with the plans to make Hagia Sophia a Mosque, it appears that the Church will be altered in very significant ways.
This is bound to invite widespread condemnation. Even UNESCO which has been asleep since 2013 (when Ankara demonstrated it was serious about Hagia Sophia having converted the Church-Museum of Trebizond that has the same name) has now protested Turkish plans. The predatory designs on Hagia Sophia are an attack not only on Christianity and on Greece specifically, but an attack on itself.
The image of Turkey as a secular country granted Turkey immunity from real scrutiny of its appalling history of genocide and crimes against humanity. The Ottomanization of Hagia Sophia will eradicate any mistaken impressions left over in the west that Turkey is secular or capable of ever reforming and becoming a part of Europe.
Hagia Sophia is hallowed ground. Whether it is a Museum or a Mosque, it will always be in essence a Greek Orthodox Cathedral. The Church of the Holy Wisdom of God. Hagia Sophia is named for Christ the second person of the Holy Trinity. This is what has made its defense so urgent and so necessary.
It also appears that the Russians are not disinterested observers in Hagia Sophia. The General Secretary of the Russian Orthodox Church (and right hand man of the Russian Patriarch) has publicly opposed changing the status of Hagia Sophia rightly recalling the influence the Great Church had on the decision of the Russians to accept Christianity. In 2015, when Turkey shot down a Russian plane over Syria, several members of the Russian Duma wrote to President Erdogan asking him to permit Hagia Sophia to become a Church.
Like the Kemalist regime it has overthrown, the Revolutionary government is arrogant and self confident. The displays of triumphalism and chauvinism of May 29 and the potential fate of Hagia Sophia may serve to frighten the western world. The conversion of THE Hagia Sophia and the conversions of other former Church-Museums in Trebizond, Iznik (Nicea), and Edirne (Adrianople) that preceded this conversion are indicative that the re Ottomanization of Turkey is irreversible.
Having slaughtered the Christian populations between 1914 and 1923, and having ethnically cleansed the last Greeks in Constantinople and the islands of Imbros and Tenedos the Turks are waging war on the last vestige of Byzantine Christianity in the City of Constantine. Hagia Sophia the faithful believe is not an empty building. It is a house of God and a house of prayer.
There will be consequences should the Revolution desecrate Hagia Sophia. Certainly in the spiritual realm, but also in the political realm of the world. Symbolism has meaning. In the final analysis the conversion of Hagia Sophia will symbolize the descent of the world into a very dark void. I say the world rather than just Turkey because the world will eventually have to deal with the consequences of Turkish fanaticism and extremism.
Turkey may end up very badly as it become increasingly aggressive and confrontational with the world. Turkey has already crossed the line into the irrational, but the conversion of Hagia Sophia will symbolize a symbolic line.
“Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God”
Matthew 5:9
“and now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love”.
I Corinthians 13:13
Orthodox Christians are obligated before God to resist evil. We see two forms of evil that are manifesting in America today. These are the evils of racism and Marxism.
One can condemn racism and the injustices suffered by the African American community without supporting the Marxist pseudo academics and other elements encouraging the massive riots in America. Christianity has always rejected racism as can be seen by the command of Jesus Christ, “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and of The Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). Christ and the Apostles were all Jewish so when the risen savior instructed his disciples to go and convert the gentiles he was emphasizing that all people are welcome into the Kingdom of God pending their repentance and baptism.
According to the teachings of the Orthodox Church, all people today are the descendants of Adam and Eve. In the Orthodox Church there is the icon of the harrowing of hell depicting Christ having descended into hell where he has liberated Adam and Eve. Christ suffered and rose from the tomb in order to bestow life to all of humanity.
There is no message that is more beautiful than that which is taught by the Holy Gospel. The Orthodox Church teaches its faithful to see the image of God in the face of every human being. Unfortunately, Christianity is perceived by many radicals in America and Europe as being a racist religion. This is because of the behavior of western Christians over the centuries as well as by the fact that radical leftists have very small and closed minds and have simply associated Christianity with evils such as slavery and racism.
The fact remains however that that there are two forms of Christianity. Eastern Orthodoxy is quite distinct from Western Christianity. The sins in previous centuries of Western Christianity do not reflect on Orthodoxy. While Roman Catholic countries such as Spain and Portugal were complicit in the slave trade, most Orthodox Christians in Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria, Rumania, and other Eastern Christians such as the Armenians, Copts, and Assyrians were suffering under the yoke of the Ottoman Empire.
A major difference in the attitude toward humanity between the Christian East and the Christian West can be seen by the differing attitudes of the Orthodox Greeks of Constantinople and the Western Crusaders to the people of Islam. When the Knights of the First Crusade were passing through Constantinople they mentioned to the Greeks that they were embarking on a “holy war”. The Greeks responded that their wars were imperial wars fought for defensive purposes and rejected the misuse of Christianity for the purposes of waging war.
The attitude of the Greek East was heavily influenced by the Canons of Saint Basil found in Orthodox Canon Law. Saint Basil had prescribed that a Christian soldier who had killed an enemy soldier in war would be denied communion for three years. It was not that the soldier had committed a sin by fighting for his country (in this case the Byzantine Empire) but in recognition of the fact that enemy soldiers were human beings who were also God’s creatures. When the Orthodox Greeks at Constantinople had heard of the genocide against Muslims and Jews that were committed by the Crusaders they were appalled and disgusted (The Crusaders can be seen as the forerunners of the neo conservatives).
As such, Christianity has always rejected racism and violence against any and all groups of people. The present difficulties in America are above all spiritual, and this is what the Marxist academics do not understand. The antidote to the social problems of America lies in the truth of the Holy Gospel and not in the writings of the long dead Karl Marx.
A righteous cause can never divorce itself from morality. All morality emanates from God. The systemic destruction that has engulfed American cities should be condemned by all Christians, Eastern and Western. Just as racism is evil in its essence, so is anarchy which has been further enflamed by the abdication of responsibility by various Mayors and political officials of the Democratic Party who have permitted the violence to continue.
Saint Paul writes, “For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light” (2 Corinthians 11:14). Every organization should be judged on the basis of substance and not on the basis of its appearance and outward claims of good works. The destruction and hysteria that has arisen in the wake of the horrific murder of George Floyd has revealed that the substantive nature of this movement is based on Marxist revolutionary ideology and not on moral opposition to racism.
The Christian denunciation of racism is based on dogmatic and spiritual truths emanating from the morality of the Triune God. The supposed opposition to racism by Marxist ideologues is motivated by the fervent desire for violent revolution and the forcible imposition of the dictatorship of the proletariat on American society. For the Marxists, there are no moral precepts at stake here only the opportunity for self promotion and a pathetic attempt to replicate in America what failed in Russia, Eastern Europe, China, Cuba, and North Korea.
Any movement lacking in moral precepts and principles is in opposition to the Holy Gospel of the Lord. Any movement that engages in the dehumanization of any person (for example, the Police) or is willing to sacrifice innocent people (those whose property is being destroyed) is without morality. The fight against corruption and racism cannot be waged without the morality that originates from God alone.
That laughable rag of political correctness, the New York Times has published a report indicating that the Russian Government put a bounty on American troops! This very same newspaper whose editorial staff revolted because the paper published an op-ed by Senator Tom Cotton (R) of Kansas that they did not agree with. Just recently, the Times published an op ed that called for the complete abolition of the Police.
The Russians have been blamed for Hillary Clinton’s election loss in 2016. Former National Security Advisor Susan Rice blamed the Russians for the riots that broke out in the United States. In 2017, Clinton ally Paul Begala called for the bombing of Russia!
The Democratic establishment continues to remind sane people why they are too dangerous to be entrusted with political power. Dangerous rhetoric and scapegoating could easily get out of hand in the event of a Biden victory in November. It has also become very clear that Joe Biden will not complete his term in office should he actually be elected President in November. Which ever extreme left wing sociopath is chosen for Vice President will become the actual President before 2024.
Most Democrats know nothing about Russia, history, or world affairs. The base of the Democratic Party became familiar with Russia and its President Vladimir Putin only after Hillary Clinton and the Democrats began demonizing Moscow in the run up to the 2016 elections. Most of the media failed to adopt any sort of objectivity regarding Russia since at least the 2016 elections. One could also argue that the anti Russia hysteria began with the Russian seizure of Crimea (after the Russians were provoked by Washington and NATO who overthrew the democratic government in Ukraine) in 2014 but I believe the real hatred of Russia erupted in 2016.
The left prides itself on its commitment to “diversity”, “tolerance”, and “multiculturalism”. If the left was genuinely committed to such concepts they would be better educated and informed about Russia and they would be establishing both Russian and Byzantine studies departments at Universities. I was watching a left wing Professor on Youtube a couple of weeks ago who referred to Putin as a “gangster”.
He also called Trump a “gangster”. So there we have it. Trump wanted better relations with Russia, and since the Democrats think Trump is evil, well then so are the Russians. There really is no logic to this anti Russian racism. Of course, there is no logic to any form of racism or bigotry.
The lives of everyone in the world have been disrupted because of the Chinese Communist Party’s initial refusal to contain the Wuhan Virus. The Chinese Communist Party caused the deaths of innocent people around the world (especially the elderly and the vulnerable), devastated economies everywhere, and took away everyone’s freedom. But the news media is not interested in China and the devastation it has caused.
The media sees Russia, not China as a threat. The Times and other media outlets do not cover events. They are working to influence events and to make them happen.They have minimized the hostile actions of China while depicting Russia as a major threat.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is suggesting the Russians have something on Donald Trump and is supposedly outraged by the supposed “bounty” that the Russians have put out. This is where one needs to go back and reread “No One Left to Lie To” by the late Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens was a first class journalist who investigated the Clinton administrations bombing of Sudan and Afghanistan in 1998 and the bombing of Iraq in December of that year.
Hitchens did not hesitate to accuse Clinton of “war crimes” for bombing those countries at times when he was either compelled to give a deposition or when the process of impeachment was reaching its conclusion in December of that year. Clinton bombed a factory in Sudan on the grounds that it was manufacturing “chemical weapons” when it was simply manufacturing aspirins! It is true that Al Quada bombed two American embassies in Africa and retaliation was in order, but the President’s behavior made it impossible for anyone not to suspect that he ordered the bombings to take attention away from his legal problems.
The Democratic Party began transforming into the lunatic party that it has become today under the Clinton administration. The Democrats have established a political cult around the Clintons. Bill Clinton dragged America (and the world to an extent) into his sex life. The behavior of the outgoing Clinton administration in 2001 has been long forgotten. The sleazy pardons at the last minute by Clinton and the vandalism of public property at the White House should have confirmed these two people had no business ever holding the reigns of power.
The Clintons refused to leave office with any sense of class or dignity in 2001. Likewise in 2016, Hillary could not concede defeat in the Presidential election and so the Democrats blamed the Russians. Except Russia is not Afghanistan, Sudan, or Iraq. The Russia of 2016 was also not the Russia of 2001.
It has also been forgotten that the Clinton administration intervened in Russian internal affairs when it tried to influence the outcome of the Russian elections of 1996. It should also be kept in mind that neoconservatives established a think tank in Washington that promoted independence from Russia for Chechnya. The Democrats are probably still harboring hard feelings because the Russians undermined the Obama administrations support for Jihadists in Syria.
Forgotten is the support that Russia gave to the United States after 9/11. Russia did not object to the use of American bases in the Central Asian Republics for use against the Taliban in Afghanistan. Russia also warned the FBI about the older brother who went on to bomb the Boston Marathon in 2013.
Joe Biden has accepted the allegations about a Russian “bounty”. No one in the Democratic Party is even waiting for more information to come out. A political party that is this ignorant and reckless has no business accumulating political power.
Donald Trump is the better candidate by far. Trump is the anti war candidate.
Finally, it appears that UNESCO has protested Turkish plans to turn Aghia Sophia into a Mosque. I suppose one can say better late than never. At this late date, any and all protests are welcome in order to save Justinian’s Church.
There are some good articles that are presently making the rounds regarding Aghia Sophia. Archeology magazine has a cover story on Aghia Sophia involving the latest activities of archeologists, and the Wall Street Journal has an excellent article. This past Wednesday, the Washington Post also had an article on Aghia Sophia.
The attention being given to Aghia Sophia is very welcome at this point. Aghia Sophia has a special meaning for Greek Orthodox faithful. What Saint Peter’s is to Roman Catholics and what the Wailing Wall is to Judaism, Aghia Sophia is to Orthodoxy.
The most welcome support for Aghia Sophia came from his eminence Metropolitan Hilarion Alfayev who is the General Secretary of the Russian Orthodox Church. His Eminence noted that a visit to Aghia Sophia where the liturgy was being celebrated one thousand years ago led to the conversion of the Russians to Christianity. Russian support is especially crucial at this point.
The State Department has made clear its own opposition to the conversion of Aghia Sophia into a Mosque. Despite the intentions of the Erdogan government, the decision to convert Aghia Sophia must be made a by a Turkish Court. Since the failed Coup of 2016, President Erdogan has taken complete control of Turkey. We will soon see if the Courts in Turkey have maintained any independence from the Government.
Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium by Bissera V. Pentcheva 2017.
A project took place in recent years by a Cappella group of singers to recapture the sound of the Great Church in Hagia Sophia and to imagine as much as possible what the Christian attending the divine liturgy in Justinian’s Church experienced and heard. Bissera V. Pentcheva (who is Russian Orthodox) has written about the project in this fine book entitled “Hagia Sophia, Sound Space and Spirit in Byzantium”. On Amazon there is also a wonderful CD and DVD available called “Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia” which is the outcome of the group’s experiments within Hagia Sophia.
The book is absolutely fascinating. It is wonderful that this group had access to Hagia Sophia. Considering that Hagia Sophia is no longer a Church, the activities undertaken Ms. Pentcheva and her associates are a wonderful way of giving glory to God. Indeed, these activities may have served as an alternative means for using the Great Church in service to Greek Orthodoxy.
The book describes the edifice of Hagia Sophia and the manner in which modern technology was utilized to capture the sound and acoustics in Hagia Sophia. Using modern recording devices and a wonderful choir the group produced an excellent recording on the aforementioned CD that allows the listener to hear as closely as possible what worshippers in Hagia Sophia heard before 1453.
In addition, the book is wonderful for educating the reader on the Divine Liturgy and worship of the Greek Orthodox Church. The reader will learn the detailed significance of the services of worship, and specifically how the Patriarch conducted services in Hagia Sophia. This book could and should be used for liturgics classes in Orthodox seminaries.
This book is a wonderful contribution to the study of Hagia Sophia and a terrific recollection on the historically and spiritually important activities that took place during this time. At a time when Turkey is threatening to convert Hagia Sophia into a Mosque, it is refreshing to see that it it still serves (albeit indirectly) as a house of Christian worship.
Both the book and CD-DVD “Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia” are available for purchase on Amazon.
“America America” was Directed by Greek American Director Elia Kazan. Kazan was a legend who directed Marlon Brando in “On the Waterfront” and was an influence on Martin Scorcese. “America America” was nominated for several Oscars and Golden Globe Awards. The Oscar nominations were for Best Picture, Director, and Screenplay. It took one Oscar for Best Art Direction.
Kazan won a Golden Globe for Best Director and the star of the film, Stathis Giallelis won a Golden Globe for Most Promising Newcomer. With summer here, there will be more posts on Movies, especially since the theaters are still closed.
“America America” is the greatest Greek themed movie that Hollywood has ever created. Most people have seen “My Big Fat Greek Wedding”. While that movie had humor and was embraced by the public it was not a film about the Greek experience and unfortunately (through no fault of its makers) it is the film that most people associate with Greeks.
“America America” is not only a Greek themed film. It is an American film through and through. It is about the land of opportunity and the immigrant experience.
The film is a fictionalized version of the journey of Kazan’s Uncle who was born in Anatolia. The film is set in the year 1896 and the story centers around a Greek family living under worsening political conditions under the Ottoman Turks. The main character is Stavros (played by Giallelis) the oldest son in the family.
Stavros is friends with an Armenian named Vartan. The film is beautifully shot (much of it was filmed in Greece and Turkey) and the second class status of Christians under the Turks is accurately depicted. The film takes place during the period when there was unrest as the Ottomans were becoming increasingly brutal toward the Armenian Christians. Benny Morris and Dror Ze’evi who published last year’s masterpiece, “The Thirty Year Genocide” about the Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Genocide dated the beginning of the mass slaughter to the year 1894.
The humiliation of Christians is expressed by the father of Stavros who tells his son “I keep my honor inside where it is safe”. This after a scene where the old man had to grovel in humiliation before a Turkish official. The film includes a scene where Stavros and Vartan are humiliated by Turkish officials while going about their business.
There is also a difficult scene to watch in which Armenians are massacred by the Turks. The film successfully captures the political atmosphere that surrounds the plight of Stavros and his family. Isaac, the father of Stavros is portrayed by Harry Davis who is excellent in the role.
My favorite scene in the movie is that which depicts family life. Isaac calls together his wife and children for prayer. He leads the family in prayer and gets irritated when his wife speaks when she should be praying. During the difficult centuries of Ottoman rule (referred to as Turkocratia by the Greeks) the Greeks survived because of the Greek Orthodox Church and the institution of the family.
The brutality and humiliation of living under Ottoman rule ended at the doors of the house. Even Isaac who had no choice but to accept humiliation at the hands of the Turks was a strong and good father who watched out for his family. In one scene, Stavros kissed the hand of his father.
The scene where the family is praying together has great significance because today the family in Greece has been largely decimated. Secularism, along with social media and other intrusions have done enormous harm to the institution of the family. Under the Ottomans, even the authority of the Turks had its limits. The home was a genuine sanctuary from outside oppression. The Greeks then were able to maintain their Orthodox faith and their national consciousness, something that has become less possible today as a result of the intrusions of modern technology and other sources.
Isaac is intent on sending Stavros on a mission. He is going to send him to live with his brother in Constantinople. This is the first step in the family’s efforts to make their way to America. Having already divulged too much for anyone who has not seen the film, I must stop any further discussion of the plot.
Stavros has read about America. He already loves America and desires to be an American. This is a brilliant immigrant movie and this is the film that should be embraced by the Greek American community as it depicts both the Greek national experience and America as a land of opportunity.
“America America” was released on VHS in 1994. It was released on DVD in 2011. Every Greek home should have a copy.
