COLLECTIVE NAMAZ IN ANI: BETRAY KEMAL ATATURK
Mkhitar Nazaryan
Panorama.am
30/09/2010
After a century-long silence, the holy liturgy served in the Armenian
Sourb Khach (St. Cross) Church of Akhtamar on September 19 has
extremely enraged Turkey’s nationalist forces trying to prevent the
gathering of Armenians in the ancient Christian sanctuary at any cost.
Nevertheless, the religious ceremony was conducted and the Armenians
from different parts of the world got together in Akhtamar Island of
Van to send their prayer to God. The fury of Turkish nationalists got
even deeper. Chairman of Turkey’s opposition “National Movement” Party
(MHP) Devlet Bahceli made an appeal to take immediate response actions.
By the way, the party is a political branch of the “Bozkurt”
right-wing extreme grouping. The organization has about 80 branches
worldwide. Its activists have been charged with different terrorist
actions, including the assassination attempt against the Pope Jonh
Paul II in 1981, attempted by Turkish Mehmet Ali Agca.
Following the liturgy in St Cross Church, D. Bahceli turned officially
to Kars governor stating his intention to hold collective namaz
with his party members at the Ani ruins October 1. Bahceli said the
collective namaz will be carried in the temple which was turned to
a mosque in 1064 under the ruling of Turkish conqueror Arpaslan.
“On the first day of the Mejlis sitting, October 1, I will go to Kars
to hold Friday prayer in Fetihe mosque at the Ani ruins,” Bahceli
said. According to Turkish sources, Bahceli’s statement was even
applauded by Kars governor.
So, Bahceli is planning to travel to Ani with over 40 members of his
party for collective Friday namaz…
Let’s note that Bahceli -led initiative is not a counter blow to
Armenians having served holy liturgy, neither it is a response action
against Turkish leadership having permitted the liturgy, but rather
it is a blow to:
1. Turkey’s constitution 2. Namaz ritual 3. Turkish people 4. The
founder of the Republic of Turkey – Kemal Ataturk
To be more concise:
1. Nationalist leader’s action of collective namaz first of all
contradicts to country’s basic law, Constitution. Even Turkish Minister
of Culture and Tourism Ertugrul Gunay has declared it lately.
Responding to Bahceli’s unprecedented statement Gunay told reporters:
“In essence, such collective namaz is anti-constitutional. Turkey’s
Constitution and law On Parties ban speculation on religion by
political parties.”
It means Bahceli illegally speculates on religious factor. One may also
suppose that this demonstrative religious fervor is indeed merely a
propaganda instrument. Parliamentary elections are due in Turkey in
2011, and Bahceli needs to win over into his electorate Islamists
who mostly used to support Erdogan’s Justice and Development party
(JDP-AKP) in the elections.
2. It is generally known that many Christian sacred places – cathedrals
and churches in Turkey’s administrative territory have been turned
into dumps and stables. Sacred places in Ani Ruins are also in a sad
condition, dirty and deserted. And Bahceli and his supporters want
to offer namaz in that dirty place, while Islam requires offering
namaz in a clean place. That is why Turkish Minister of Culture and
Tourism recommended Bahceli instead of violating the constitution and
religious rites to find a clean place to personally offer namaz there.
3. Bahceli publicly voiced an intention to pray in the former
cathedral turned into a mosque under Alparslan. Thus he seems to
have unintentionally confirmed the historical fact that the Turkish
population is not native in that region, Turkish nomadic tribes
invading from Middle Asia to Asia Minor seized the lands of the
local peoples.
4. By offering collective namaz at the Ani Ruins Turkish nationalists,
in essence, betray their ideological leader, founder of the Republic
of Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Devlet Bahceli and his co-partisans,
in fact, openly deviate from Kemal Ataturk’s provisions, particularly,
principle of secularity. The very Ataturk founded secular republic in
Turkey in 1923. Ataturk carried out a series of anti-Islamic reforms –
women’s emancipation, transformation of state Islamic institutions to
secular organizations, introduction of Western laws, clothes, calendar,
alphabet, etc. Obviously, Nationalist Movement Party’s initiative to
offer collective namaz at the Ani Ruins delivers a blow to Kemalism. We
can once again confirm that a new subtrend, Eurasian Kemalism has
appeared, and it is an abrupt turn from Western values to Eastern.
Thus, if Devlet Bahceli and his co-partisans offer collective namaz
at the Ani Ruins on October 1, its means violation of Turkey’s
Constitution, violation of namaz rituals, and betrayal of Ataturk’s
principle of secularism.
From: A. Papazian