Category: political

“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.

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.

Updated December 5, 2020

https://whc.unesco.org/en/news/2197

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.