“Turkey has again confused faith tourism and religious freedom in the announcement that the Imera Monastery has been partially restored,” reported International Christian Concern (ICC) on November 19.
“It is acknowledged that the Imera Monastery is an important Christian site in the eastern Black Sea region, but the fact that Christians in this area suffered a genocide which nearly eliminated their presence was ignored. Rather than taking steps to bring healing to those communities who have suffered genocide, their religious and cultural sites are instead turned into cultural tourism sites that help fund the state’s activities,” the ICC added.
Today Christians and Jews comprise only 0.2 percent of Turkey’s population. This major population decline was largely caused by the 1913-23 Christian genocide that targeted Armenians, Assyrians and Greeks.
Christian and other non-Muslim places of worship in Turkey are exposed to several types of abuses. Author Raffi Bedrosyan explains:
Along with the hundreds of thousands of homes, shops, farms, orchards, factories, warehouses, and mines belonging to the Armenians, the church and school buildings also disappeared or were converted to other uses. If not burnt and destroyed outright in 1915 or left to deteriorate by neglect, they became converted buildings for banks, radio stations, mosques, state schools, or state monopoly warehouses for tobacco, tea, sugar, etc., or simply private houses and stables for the Turks and Kurds.
Violations against churches are ongoing in Turkey. On July 24, for example, Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia church/museum held its first Islamic Friday prayers in 86 years after being officially converted into a mosque. Four days later, Trabzon’s Hagia Sophia was reopened as a mosque. Sadly, this grave abuse has not received enough media attention.
These two are not the only former churches in the country. All across Turkey are historic Greek, Armenian and Assyrian churches. Prior to the Turkish takeover in the fifteenth century, the region was inhabited by indigenous Christian peoples for centuries. Today, however, the Christian presence in the region has almost completely ceased to exist, due to Turkish policies. As a result, the historic churches are either empty or have been used as mosques or for other purposes.
The Hagia Sophia in Trabzon (or Trapezus/Trebizond) is one of these many former Greek churches. It is located in a former Greek city in the ancient region of Pontos, which means “the sea” in Greek. The first Greek settlements appeared here as early as 800 BC. Many renowned Greek philosophers, such as Diogenes and Strabo, were born in Pontos.
According to the Ancient History Encyclopedia, Trebizond’s “first settlers were from Sinope (Xenophon, Anabasis, 4.8), a Greek city on the southern shore of the Black Sea, about 400 kilometers to the west. Because this city was a daughter of Miletus, which in turn was believed to be a colony of Athens, the Trapezian scholar Cardinal Bessarion would still boast to be an Athenian in Renaissance times.”
During the Byzantine (Eastern Roman) era, the city was rebuilt by the emperor Justinian I (reigned 527–565). Antony Eastmond writes that,
Trebizond was one of the major Byzantine centers in eastern Anatolia. Its port was important for commerce arriving in caravans from the east. Its easily defensible position ensured its importance as a Byzantine military outpost, and it was used as a base for military expeditions to the east. Later it served as a stronghold as other parts of Anatolia fell first to invading Arabs and then to the Seljuk Turks. Consequently, Byzantine emperors over the centuries were concerned to protect, enhance and improve the city, and major commissions are recorded in, among others, the reigns of Justinian (527-65), Basil I (867-86), and Basil II (976-1025).
After the invasion of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204, two Byzantine princes founded an independent offshoot of the Byzantine Empire in Trebizond. It stretched from Georgia along the Black Sea coast, with Alexios I Megas Komnenos serving as emperor.
“This new empire outlived the parent city,” writes Anthony Bryer. “Until 1461, it remained an unconquered outpost of Greek-Christian civilization.”
The Empire of Trebizond’s end came when its territories were invaded by the Ottoman Turks in 1461. Under the Ottoman rule, Christians became “dhimmis,” oppressed subjects of the empire whose adherence to a non-Islamic religion perpetually exposed them to second-class status.
The Asia Minor and Pontos Hellenic Research Center reports that,
The Turkish persecution of Pontian Greeks and other Christian peoples began after the fall of Trabzon, starting slowly at first and gradually becoming more widespread and terrifying. Massacres and deportations became more frequent and intense. Many Christians reluctantly converted to Islam to avoid oppression and discrimination and merely to survive. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, approximately 250,000 Pontian Greeks were forced to convert to Islam and speak Turkish. Almost 250,000 migrated to areas of the Caucasus and the northern shores of the Black Sea that Russia controlled.
From 1913 to 1923, Ottoman Turkey committed a genocide against indigenous Christians: Armenians, Greeks and Assyrians. In the Dictionary of Genocide, Samuel Totten and Paul R. Bartrop write that “The destruction of the Pontic Greeks, and the forcible deportation that followed, had but a single planned outcome: the removal of all Greeks from Turkey.”
The genocide atrocities committed against Greek and other Christians included the mass drowning of victims in the Black Sea. According to the article “The Greek Relief Committee: America’s Response to the Greek Genocide,” Lazaros George Macrides of Trebizond was rescued from Cotyora (Ordu) on the Black Sea coast by a Russian vessel, along with 2,000 other survivors in August 1917. He sought refuge in the United States to join the Greek Relief Committee (GRC).
In a statement made public by the American relief organizations, Macrides described some of the practices used in the destruction of the Greeks during the genocide,
Those of us who were between the ages of 16 and 60 were drafted into the Turkish Army. Our women and children and the older men were placed temporarily in homes and orphanages until the opportunity offered to dispose of them in the approved Turco-Teuton fashion, which in this instance turned out to be by wholesale drowning. The unfortunate survivors of the deportation were towed out for several miles into the Black Sea and then calmly dumped overboard, just like so much garbage. None of them survived.
Today, there is neither an Orthodox community nor an active Orthodox church in Trabzon. The survivors of the genocide were forcibly expelled from their ancient homeland, where they had lived for over 3,000 years, as part of the 1923 forced population exchange treaty between Greece and Turkey.
Hagia Sophia in Trebizond: Church-Mosque-Museum; now a mosque again
Hagia Sophia in Trebizond was built during the reign of Greek Emperor Manuel I between 1238 and 1263. Antony Eastmond defines Trebizond’s Hagia Sophia as “the finest surviving Byzantine imperial monument of its period.” It was converted into a mosque after Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II invaded Trebizond in 1461. This followed a month-long siege and its ruler, David Megas Komnenos, and his family were taken captive.
The Turkish government turned Hagia Sophia into a museum in 1964. However, since 2013, it has once again been used as a mosque. The church’s Christian symbols are damaged or destroyed. On July 28 of this year, the historic building was officially reopened as a mosque.
See the interior of “Hagia Sophia mosque” in Trabzon here and here.
Turkey aggressively denies the genocide, of which one of the consequences is these types of conversions from historic church to mosque. Turkey also applies intense legal pressure against those who wish to objectively discuss the issue. Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code makes it illegal to insult Turkey, the Turkish nation or Turkish government institutions. There are also several “anti-terrorism laws” used by prosecutors against dissidents.
An investigation, for instance, was launched by Ankara’s Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office in 2018 against Garo Paylan, an opposition MP of Armenian origin, “for violating Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code.” Paylan’s office said that “the investigation was launched after comments he made in an interview about genocides taking place in Turkey today.”
The tactics used by the Turkish government to bury the truths concerning the genocide are multifaceted. Turkey denies the Christian genocide on several levels: state/political, academic, educational, and through journalistic platforms. Meanwhile, it violates, and in some cases destroys, the remnants of Greek, Armenian and Assyrian civilizations.
Uzay Bulut is a Turkish journalist and political analyst formerly based in Ankara.
jirtu says
Just as one Armenian, one Greek, and one Assyrian is one too many, one Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian church is one too many for many Turks Turkish fascism is infused into Turkish children through textbooks which teach hatred of these three nations. The Armenian proverb says: “A thief’s heart is always atremble.” The realization that Turkey is Occupied Armenia plus Occupied Greece plus Occupied northern Assyria, Turks are nervous about losing their plunder gained through centuries of massacres of these three nations.
Why go after churches? They are the praying places of the infidels (“gavoor” in Turkish) and the churches are the only structures left from the times when “Turkey” was the homeland of the three minorities. Turks don’t destroy ancient Greek structures because that could hurt tourism– a major source of revenue.
gravenimage says
+1
Shaman says
Even the most beer drinking secularist Turks are racist towards Armenians and Kurds. Their leader Ataturk himself massacred Christians in Smyrna and Kurds in Dersim. Even though the crimes of the secularist Turks, just like their secular Nazibaijan’s today, the person who apologized for the Dersim Massacre was not a secularist but it was the Islamist Erdogan himself. It’s been a few years since his apology. But I believe his apology was a political deception for gaining votes. Kurds were poisoned in the caves that they sought refuge from secularist ultra-nationalists just like mice as they said. It was not a rat poison but the Turkish poison which is still ongoing since their first entrance to Anatolia.
Boycott Turkey says
So true Shaman the most secular Turks hate us just as much as the Islamic Turks the secular Turks kill us faster and the Islamic Turks kill us more slower I have not heard of the Dersim massacre till now but nothing surprises me how bloodthirsty and cruel they are to poisen Kurds in Caves reminds me of Hitler gassing Jews in ovens
Shaman says
Thanks, Boycott Turkey. Here is the Wikipedia article about the Dersim Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dersim_rebellion
Boycott Turkey says
Thanks for the link Shaman very Horrific just like I imagined I noticed Erdogan apologised I think what he meant was sorry we didn’t kill every single Kurd at the time even today he continues to Genocide Kurds in Iraq also I heard they are bombing Assyrian villages to in Iraq
gravenimage says
All too true.
Infidel says
No Christian in his/her right mind should ever go to Turkey, or for that matter, to any other Muslim country
Alan Coates says
I agree completely. Although I am an atheist I believe that so much evil is performed by muslim countries and their people I too will not visit any muslim country including turkey!
Boycott Turkey says
The historical abuse of Greek Armenians Assyrian Churches will never end Turkey wants to eurase Greek History from Turkey to hide its theft and genocide I don’t think this will ever end not only that they are committing more genocide now in Artaksh they will destroy those famous monasteries in Artaksh or turn them to mosque but what can Greeks Armenians Assyrians do nothing as the world stays silent and allows this forget about covid being the worst thing in 2020 the worst thing for Greeks And Armenians is Agia Sophia being turned to a mosque and Armenians being Ethnicly cleansed from there ancient land Artaksh
GreekEmpress says
+1000, Boycott Turkey!
Brando says
Lately I have been checking on ANNE APPLEBAUM,American writer,who has written several books against Communism:
GULAG (2004) ,and “IRON CURTAIN: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944–1956 ” (2013 )
( about how democracies were destroyed after WW II in Eastern Europe )
and “Red Famine: Stalin’s War on Ukraine” ( about how MILLIONS died of STARVATION there, done by STALIN )(2017 )
She has written somewhat (only somewhat ) against socialism in Venezuela, and Muslim terrorism BUT Nothing Compares to her HATRED of TRUMP, and Even Now,Today,in spite of ALL the EVIDENCE
(for example, what is coming out from SYDNEY POWELL)
that the DEMOCRATS and others are using the VERY SAME METHODS the Socialists/Communists have used,and that
She Herself CONDEMNS in her Books Against Communism, she continues to Hate Trump and is Happy he (for her) has Lost.
HER LATEST BOOK
Yet,she is Praised in the Media as a DEFENDER of FREEDOM,in her latest book:
“Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism”(2020),
she attacks are TRAITORS to Democracy and as Totalitarians several Intellectuals who are just Classical Liberals or Pro-Human Rights Conservatives:
RAFAEL BARDAJI (Spain)
SIMON HEFFER (United Kingdom)
LAURA INGRAHAM (United States)
MARIA SCHMIDT (Hungary).
Personally I believe Trump will WIN, he seems to have Planned It All for YEARS Ahead,and when All the Evidence of the Anti-Trumpers’ Corruption and Crimes comes out,
will Applebaum write a NEW BOOK Admitting she was Wrong? Of course Not, she will continue to try to Find Excuses and Rationalizations of why TRUMP is EVIL.
That is the mentality of those types.
revereridesagain says
It’s a phenomenon seen all over the place with people who should know better, who inexplicably hate Trump for apparently nothing more than his personality and unconventionality, and without batting an eye enable those who want to drag us into socialism. It is frustrating, inexplicable and indefensible and if I can’t be as optimistic about Trump being re-elected I at least look forward to some of these morons having to own up to what destructive fools they have been.
Brando says
1. Hi, it is moments like these where you see who are Real and Authentic: the socialist duo of THE YOUNG TURKS continue to say there is No Fraud.
2. The same for Leftist DAVID PAKMAN( Jewish,from Argentina). They have a lot of followers. Four years ago Pakman Denounced the Lies of REZA ASLAN,several times, but that moment of integrity has gone.
Pakman Continues to Repeat their is No Electoral Fraud.
3.Another IMBECILE: SAM HARRIS, 6 days ago came out a video:
“Sam Harris Officially LEAVES The Intellectual Dark Web & CALLS OUT It’s Members For Defending Trump!”
https://youtu.be/w9ebmgfLI-Y
The Description
Sam Harris officially RESCINDING HIS MEMBERSHIP of the
INTELLECTUAL DARK WEB,
a GROUP created back in 2018 that consisted of
JOE ROGAN,
Ben Shapiro,
Sam Harris,
Brett and Eric Weinstein,
JORDAN PETERSON, and more.
Sam Harris has been a vocal critic of Donald Trump ever since before he was even in office, and has continued to do so throughout his presidency, and is DISGUSTED by the DEFENSES OF TRUMP given by the MEMEBERS of the INTELLECTUAL DARK WEB
gravenimage says
More Trump derangement syndrome, Brando.
GreytigerTX says
The picture made me laugh. A whole room wall to wall with butt sniffers.
Crusades Were Right says
Can someone please explain why the “world community” apparently tolerates Turkey’s/Azerbaijan’s:
* unprovoked aggession against Armenians
* desecration of Armenian churches
* torture and murder of Armenian POW’s and civilians
* ethnic cleansing of Armenians from part of their ancient homeland
* colonisation by Azerbaijanis and other Mohammedans of Artsakh (part of ancient Armenia)
?????
Where are all the “human rights” activists? Where are the “stars” and “celebrities” who are quick to inform us about the suffering of Africans, Kurds, Rohingya, and various other “indigenous” peoples?
Could it be something to do with the fact that in this case the victims are WORSHIPPERS OF JESUS CHRIST, while the victimisers are WORSHIPPERS OF ALLAH?
Nah… surely not.
Boycott Turkey says
Because Crusader Armenians are just a few insignificant Orthodox Christians with no oil or gas so they don’t matter it don’t matter that Armenians have lived there for centuries and have old monasteries and are indenginous to the land the UN still class them as illegally occupying Azerbaijan land which is as old as Coca Cola and was given to them by Stalin one of history’s greatest murderers of all time and the poor old brave 80 million Turks and 10 Azerbaijan Turks with NATO Israeli weapons where just liberating there lands from the 3 million evil defenceless Armenian occupiers how great Azerbaijan is so much bigger and has sea but it’s not enough they have to liberate more land is it enough ? And world stays silent on Azerbaijan using cluster bombs and white phosphorus
Crusades Were Right says
+1
gravenimage says
Turkey: Will the Abuses against Historic Churches Ever End?
…………………….
Probably not until they are all destroyed or turned into Mosques.
Another important article from Uzay Bulut. Thank you.
Huh!?! says
Q: Turkey: Will the Abuses against Historic Churches Ever End?
A: No
At the rate things are going this will increase here in the U.S. Will start happening faster with harris/puppet admin in office. Look for increasing violence on Jews and Christians.
Pal says
The picture top above, of HAGIA SOPHIA stuffed with praying moslems, butts up:
(Male) Farts & Socks.
That what the spirituality of moslem, of islam is. On its more calm side.
That was what CHRISTIANITY in the CATHEDRAL was replaced with. And not only in it.
A civilisational change. That what islam desires.