Why Are 700 Greeks Praying In a Turkish Hotel?
The Taxiarchis Orthodox Church in Ayvalik in an undated photo. (photo
by bianet.org)
By: Orhan Kemal Cengiz for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse Posted on October 2.
TÜRKÇE OKUYUN
There is a small town on Turkey’s western Aegean coast, called
Ayvalik. On Sept. 29, a striking photo from this town hit the
newspapers. A local hotel was hosting a religious service, attended by
700 clerics who came from various Greek islands.
Those familiar with the historic tensions between Turkey and Greece
could assume that the clerics prayed in Ayvalik in a show of defiance.
The actual story, however, is quite different, offering a good
perspective of how much religious freedom non-Muslims enjoy in Turkey.
The clerics had in fact come to Ayvalik to hold a religious service at
the local Taxiarchis Orthodox Church. But as they failed to obtain the
`required’ permission from the authorities, they had to make a
last-minute arrangement and pray at a hotel.
Let’s see how things unfolded, as reported in the Taraf daily: `When
the governor’s office denied them permission for a service at the
Taxiarchis Church in Ayvalik, the 700 Greeks decided to book the
conference hall of a hotel. The service, held in the conference hall
of the Halic Park Hotel in Ayvalik, was attended by a total of 700
people, including 400 from the island of Lesbos and 300 from Athens,
Crete and elsewhere. The Greek consul in Izmir, Theodore Tsakiris, a
parliament member from Lesbos and the Orhomenos mayor also attended
the service. A member of the Greek Orthodox community in Turkey, who
requested anonymity, told Taraf : `Back in April, we applied to hold a
service at the Taxiarchis Church on Sept. 29. We waited six months for
a reply. The rejection came only three days before the scheduled
service date. Why did they wait for six months? We believe they did so
deliberately. Concerts are being organized in the church where we want
to pray. It is hard to understand why our religious service becomes a
problem while concerts are allowed to be held in the church.’
The Taraf story contains also the following information: `The
Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul applied to the governor’s office
in April for a permission for a religious service on Sept. 29 at the
Taxiarchis Church, which has a `museum’ status. The governor’s office,
in turn, sought an approval from the Ministry of Culture and Tourism.
The ministry rejected the request on the grounds that `the Taxiarchis
Church does not figure in the 2000 catalogue of churches where
religious services could be held.”
You may already be confused. Why has a church become a museum? Why
does worshipping in a church require the permission of administrative
authorities? Why do Greek clerics hold prayers in Turkey?
Let’s start with the last question. The Greek Orthodox patriarchate in
Istanbul is an ecumenical patriarchate, according to the title it
uses. The title signifies a declaration that the ecumenical patriarch
is the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Christians in the world, just
as the pope is for Catholics. Even though some Orthodox churches do
not recognize the patriarch’s authority, many others around the world
accept the patriarchate in Istanbul as their universal spiritual
leadership.
Turkey, however, refuses to recognize the patriarchate’s ecumenical
title. Officially, the patriarchate is considered to be the religious
institution of the Greek community in Istanbul, which has today
dwindled to 3,000 people.
Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power,
restrictions on the patriarchate have been eased to a certain degree,
but measures that would meet the genuine needs of the institution have
never materialized. A decision to reopen theHalki Theological School
was removed at the last minute from the democratization package that
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan unveiled on Monday, Sept. 30. The
seminary is vital for raising future patriarchs.
This brief explanation should have made it clear why 700 Orthodox
Greeks would come to Turkey for a religious service. They did so on
the call of their spiritual leader to pray in a church which is
historically theirs.
Like many other churches, the Taxiarchis Church, built in 1844, has
lost its bond with the patriarchate over the years. Until recently,
Turkey’s Orthodox Christians were unable to use their ancient
churches. And this was true not only for Greek Orthodox churches, but
also for churches and synagogues that historically belong to the
Armenian and Jewish communities. Many such shrines across Turkey were
left abandoned and dilapidated.
Under a 2010 decision, the AKP government reopened some of those
ancient churches to worship. The examples include the Sumela Monastery
in the Black Sea province of Trabzon and the Armenian Akhtamar Church
on the island with the same name in Lake Van, eastern Turkey. As the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism renovated the shrines, many wondered
who their proprietors would be once the restoration was finished. The
churches were then declared to be `museums,’ and thus the ministry
became their proprietor. Then, the shrines were opened to worship only
once every year. Hence, Turkey’s Armenians and Greeks had to suffice
with one-day yearly permissions to pray in the churches that belonged
to them in the past.
Some shrines, meanwhile, were allocated for other purposes after
restoration. According to the Norwegian Helsinki Committee, the Surp
Pirgic Church in Diyarbakir, southeast Turkey, became a center to
`teach women manual skills’ after it was renovated by the
Directorate-General of Foundations.
Similarly, the synagogue in Gaziantep, southeast Turkey, was renovated
by the Directorate-General of Foundations, and then rather than being
returned to the Jewish community, it was handed over to Gaziantep
University to be used as a `culture museum.’
The Hagia Sophia Church in Trabzon, on the other hand, became a museum
first, and was then opened to worship in June – as a mosque.
The Taxiarchis Church, where the 700 Greeks wanted to pray, was also
renovated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, on a budget of 3
million Turkish lira (about $1.5 million). While the renovation was
under way, there was talk that the church would attract a major wave
of `faith tourism’ to the district.
The latest incident, however, demonstrates that `faith tourism’ is
unwelcome, and that, when it comes to Christians, Turkey can never
shrug off its prejudices. The incident, which coincided with Erdogan’s
`democratization package,’ is a clear indication that democratization
should first take place in one’s mentality.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz is a human rights lawyer, columnist and former
president of the Human Rights Agenda Association, a Turkish NGO that
works on human rights issues ranging from the prevention of torture to
the rights of the mentally disabled. Since 2002, Cengiz has been the
lawyer for the Alliance of Turkish Protestant Churches.
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