“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.
One reply on “Hallowed ground and the Revolution”
Erdogan is in deep political trouble and when that happens in Turkey their leaders have historically tried to focus the people’s attention elsewhere. Turkey’s economy is in a shambles with increasing unemployment, rising prices and a declining currency. The Turkish Lira has fallen dramatically in value against both the US Dollar and the EURO. Turkey is in recession and Erdogan desperately wants to decrease interest rates to try and jump start his economy, but the Lira has already fallen by almost 200% in value against the major currencies in the last 5 years. The Turkish Central Bank is using massive amounts of foreign exchange to try and support the Lira and it is still falling. Unemployment is officially around 16% but probably much higher, food staples are becoming too expensive to buy. Only today Turkey’s Halkbank was indicted in NYC by US Courts for violating the Iranian embargo-this is reputed to be Erdogan’s ‘private bank’ which holds his embezzled Billions. So Erdogan tries to deflect attention from his failures to foreign affairs: he sends Turkish naval vessels to trespass on Cyprus EEZ territory and illegally prospect for oil and gas. Turkish Air Force aircraft violate Athens FIR regularly and overfly the Greek islands. Turkey often opens its borders and lets refugees invade the Greek islands. And now he is using the threat of turning Hagia Sophia into a Mosque as a means to win-over the Turkish street. We have a new dictator running Turkey, but he’s using the same old games.