The Orthodox Church of the Czeck Lands and Slovakia is the latest of the local Orthodox Churches to oppose the conversion of Hagia Sophia to a Mosque. The Czeck Church joins the Churches of Russia, Serbia, Rumania, Georgia, Bulgaria, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Greece, Cyprus, and Albania in condemning Turkish plans for Hagia Sophia. The New York Times had an excellent editorial on the importance of Hagia Sophia.
Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America travelled to the White House to meet President Trump and Vice President Pence to discuss the matter of Hagia Sophia. From a moral standpoint, a case can be made that there has been a moral victory of sorts considering the international attention that is directed at Turkey. This is all very welcome, but unless there is a miracle (always a possibility) this will not be enough.
The Serbian Church has joined the Greek Churches in singing the Akathist Hymn. The Akathist Hymn was sung by the faithful of Cosntantinople in 626 AD when the Avars were threatening the City. The Emperor Heraclius was away fighting the Persians and the Avars threatened the City.
The faithful gathered under the leadership of Patriarch Sergius at the Church of the Panagia of Blachernae for an all night vigil where they sang the Akathist Hymn. After the Avars lost the battle and Constantinople was saved, enemy soldiers claimed to have seen a mysterious woman on the walls of the Blachernae section of Constantinople.
The spiritual activity emanating throughout the Greek world is truly wonderful. Perhaps if the Greek world had rallied like this a few years ago, victory would have been assured. It should be remembered that the path to the conversion of Hagia Sophia began in 2013 with the conversion of the former Church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond to a Mosque.
The activity surrounding Hagia Sophia has its benefits even if the Turks hold their prayer services in Hagia Sophia. President Erdogan sacrificed a crucial opportunity to improve his image throughout the world. His activities on Hagia Sophia are taking place while he is exacerbating tensions with Greece and his allies Azerbaijan are waging acts of aggresion against Armenia.
The Turkish government has recruited Syrian Jihadists to fight in Libya. Turkey and Russia were enemies over Syria. Now the two of them are on opposite sides in Libya. Turkish diplomatic abilities are being overstretched. Turkey is waging too many acts of aggression at the same time. On top of all this, Erdogan insists on antagonizing the world over Hagia Sophia.
Hagia Sophia may be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. The conversion of Hagia Sophia is intended to be a symbol for the success of Erdogan’s neo-Ottoman revolution. It is proving to be a very expensive symbol as it is costing enormous diplomatic good will for Turkey.
Hagia Sophia remains holy ground. The holy ground of Hagia Sophia may very well bury him and his revolution considering the enormous fall out which includes world wide negative publicity in the world’s media and among foreign governments.
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Mass exodus of foreign investors and record outflows from the Turkish bond market – The share of foreigners in the Turkish bond market collapsed to 5%, according to the WSJ – The perfect storm begins
International investors and fund managers withdrew more than $ 7 billion from the Turkish bond market in the first half of the year – the most violent outflow of foreign investors in the neighboring country, according to the Wall Street Journal .
The share of foreigners in Turkish bonds in circulation has collapsed from about 33% in 2013 to just 5% today, according to official data from the Central Bank of Turkey.
Turkish bonds are no longer attractive as the central bank has cut interest rates below the level of inflation on Erdogan’s orders – and against the economic logic of the market. This means that someone who converts foreign currency into pounds to buy Turkish bonds automatically loses money.
The Victor Sambo chief investment officer at Aberdeen Standart Investments says the WSJ that investors no longer dealing with even the Turkish bond market: “The way we leave Turkey is unprecedented.”
The outflow of investors worsens the situation of the heavily indebted economy which is dependent on foreign exchange. The coronavirus crisis has caused a collapse in Turkey’s exports to the EU as well as tourist arrivals. effectively eliminating new foreign exchange earnings.
In addition, to stop the devaluation of the currency, Turkey has burned billions of its limited foreign exchange reserves: By buying Turkish pounds with hard currency, the Turkish regime tried to hold the exchange rate.
When the cash ran out, the state seized the cash of the commercial banks with obligatory lending (with swaps), asking them to deposit their currency in the central bank of the country.
In addition, it introduced bans and bans on foreign exchange trading for foreign banks as well as bans on specific withdrawals, further worsening the international marketability of the currency.
Nevertheless, since the beginning of the year, the Turkish lira has lost 13% of its value and needed the help of Qatar (with no compensation) to hold it in recent weeks.
The borrowing bubble
Trying to avoid the inevitable, Erdogan has sparked an unprecedented lending party that has created the biggest bubble in history.
But that increases the risk if Turkish commercial banks cease to be able to borrow foreign currency in international markets, something many analysts say will not be long in the face of Erdogan’s orthodox policies .
With deficits widening every month without being able to be covered, the slightest shock can cause the economy to collapse.
The risk is exacerbated by Turkey’s war adventures on more fronts than the United States now, and the consequences will be too great for absorbing by Erdogan’s wealthy remaining allies.
For this reason, the exit of international investors will not be suspended soon, as they prefer to observe the dangerous game of the Turkish leader from the stands.
Turkey’s Lira closed today at 7.97 to the EURO and 6.85 to the US Dollar. The ONLY thing holding them at that level is the massive use of precious foreign currency by Turkey’s Central Bank to buy Lira. When that runs out, it will precipitate a massive devaluation of the Lira compared to the major world currencies. Erdogan can’t blame it on anyone else, he presided with near unlimited Executive power all during the lead-up to this currency crisis. He owns it.
Most recently, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his guardianship have been propagating Islamic prayer that would officially mark the conversion of Hagia Sophia into a mosque. The preparations were hectic, while leaders of Muslim states were also invited to the ceremony. Finally, the 24th of July arrived, the prayer was fulfilled, however, things were not as Erdogan expected: The people outside the Hagia Sophia did not even reach the 350,000 in their minds, as the “Sultan” claimed, while not a single leader was present. Muslim state, not even the leaders of Azerbaijan and Qatar , close allies of the Turkish president.
Essentially with the Hagia Sophia Mosque , as a symbol of conquest, it theoretically claims the leadership of Sunni Islam. As a goal, it seems grandiose. Especially if one considers the absolute rejection of Saudi Arabia, Deutsche Welle estimates . And indeed, this happened as Erdogan found himself in Hagia Sophia with only his ministers but also his electoral ally Devlet Bahceli, who sees his turnout plummet and his party base move to -also- nationalist Meral Aksener .
Arab News for Erdogan: Historically ignorant
“Incomprehensible” characterizes the Hussein Abdul Hussein opinion article in the Arabic-language network “Arab News” the Turkish president Erdogan’s decision to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque . “The Turkish president has ignored global calls not to proceed with this transformation, like those of Unesco and Pope Francis, who say they are ‘very saddened’ by his decision.”
“Historically, the Vatican and the Pope , the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, would like to see their opponents – the Hagia Sophia and the Orthodox Patriarchate – clash. But it so happened that the role of the Pope was politically active. “Today, however, the Pope is promoting peace,” the journalist wrote.
Hussein, head of the Al-Rai newspaper’s Washington bureau in Kuwait, said: “In any case, Erdogan’s decision to invite Pope Francis to the Hagia Sophia’s conversion ceremony from a museum to a mosque shows that the Turkish president is still ignores the sensitivities created by his role as a demagogue. Not only does Erdogan want the Pope to attend an event where the Turkish president is presented as the Sultan the Conqueror in one of the most famous churches in the world, he also wants to watch Turkey cover Christian symbols to allow Muslims to pray in building”.
But, not to worry, Erdogan’s “assistant” Ibrahim Kalin told CNN: “We are making some adjustments to ensure that, during Muslim prayers, the mosaics are covered but not touched.” He added: “The main point here is that there is no damage to these mosaics, … and the architecture of the building.”
“Covering historic Christian symbols in the building with the most visits to Turkey … will add nothing to the spiritual experience of Muslims praying in the former church.
Erdogan seems to be unaware that – unlike Mecca for Islam and to a lesser extent Jerusalem – Hagia Sophia has no significance for Islam.
For Christians, however, Hagia Sophia has enormous religious value. First of all, Constantinople is one of the five sees of Christ, along with Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome.
The same post states that, regardless of how some Turks imagine their history, their culture is relatively new, like that of America …
Immediately after coming to power, Erdogan is obsessed with his global image and his argument that “the world is bigger than five” – that is, the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. Erdogan has repeatedly tried to add Turkey to the top five to show the Turks that he has revived their empire’s past. Having failed on this front, he seems to have left the UN and is trying instead to rebuild an Islamic empire with him in power. “Turning the Hagia Sophia into a mosque is part of Erdogan’s dream of imperial rule in the name of Islam.”