Posted on 04/15/2007 5:53:27 PM PDT by eleni121
The European Union Parliament is pressuring the Turkish Government to restore Saint Sophia Cathedral from a museum into a Greek Orthodox Church. However the Parliament has set a requirement of 1.000.000 signatures on a petition before it makes this conversation a prerequisite for Turkey's admission into the European Union.
Please sign the petition and forward to friends.
thanks.
The Waqf will grant Israel permission to build teh Third Temple before Turkey will release the building to the Church.
One nice thing about being an amature historian is that I don’t have to worry about performance reviews or pay cuts when I am wrong. :)
Orthodox Christians and most other Christians would be overjoyed to worship in the magnificent Church of the Lord.
I do not think you realize its importance.
The Greeks were betrayed by the great powers. I can send you a scholarly link if you want to read more about those horrible days.
Ken-— would you like a list of sources? You seem to know absurdly little about this historical era.
I don’t know...it depends on how important EU membership is to them. Surely it has some value or they wouldn’t be applying. It all comes down to what it’s worth to them. I would bet that the economic benefits of EU membership (which would be *enormous*) could be worth quite a lot.
the jews were pushed out by the returning greeks.
Never happened. You sound like you’ve been reading too much Al Jazeera.
In fact, Greeks saved thousands of jews from the Nazis.
Turning Haghia Sophia into a mosque would simply reveal Muslim hypocrisy and insanity. Maybe a good thing. It would lead to a Christian awakening in Europe.
The Waqf will grant Israel permission to build teh Third Temple before Turkey will release the building to the Church.
You may be right. But in the meantime the hypocrisy and evil of Muslims would be revealed...again.
It will always be Constantinople.
Of course. No question about it.
The Muslims should just wait another generation or so, until they become the majority in Europe, then it is a moot issue.
Editors: A kind reader informed us on 11 March 2006 that there were difficulties in accessing the weblog and in submitting signatures to the petition. We have reviewed the petition page and found it working properly at the URL indicated above. For another opinion on the status of Agia Sophia, read on for the remarks written by Dr. Anthony Limberakis of the Order of Archons of the Ecumnical Patriarchate and submitted to Greek News online in October 2005 (http://www.greeknewsonline.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=3801&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0):
Your readers may have received an email requesting them to sign a petition supporting the “restoration and reopening” of Hagia Sophia. The email states that this petition would oppose Turkey’s entry into the European Union unless or until the Turkish government “restored” Hagia Sophia (currently a museum) to a church. To my mind, Hagia Sophia is the most magnificient edifice in the world. I believe that its mosaics – particularly the 14th century Deisis - is the greatest work of art ever conceived! However, this campaign is misguided and lamentable. It demeans the current survival struggle that is unfolding before us regarding the life of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to which the world community and the Orthodox faithful have barely awaken. The call to action to which all women and men of conscience should respond is the call to protect the living institution of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople.
For the greater part of eighteen centuries, the Ecumenical Patriarchate has preserved and passed on the Christian message. Through countless and unimaginable hardships it has remained as a testament to faith and the enlightment of all mankind. Over the course of the last several decades, elements in the Turkish government have systematically moved to extinguish the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Not only has an environment of religious intolerance been fomented, certain members of the Turkish state have persecuted the Orthodox clergy and laity, closed down its only theological school, and confiscated its properties. The litany of aggressive persecutions is vast and ghastly.
Instead of being beguiled in the comfortable click of an email signature endorsing a petition to “restore and reopen” Hagia Sophia, let us all commit to taking profound action to ensure the perpetual health of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Here are some of the many things you can do:
1. Make a donation to the Order of Saint Andrew for its Patriarchal Defense Initiatives. These initiatives will support legal actions in seeking governmental intervention against the repression of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the courts and governments of the United States, Europe and the Middle East;
2. Write President George W. Bush, copying Secretary of State Rice and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, and your Senators and Congressmen, your state, city and local representatives stating something like the following: America was established, in part, because of the desire for religious freedom. The First Amendment makes it very clear that freedom of worship is a fundamental human right recognized by the Founding Fathers and the framers of the United States Constitution. Turkey, as an ally of the United States, ought to recognize legally the Ecumenical Patriarchate; return its confiscated properties back to the Mother Church; not interfere in Patriarchal elections or in the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s canonical governance; and immediately open Halki Theological School which has been closed since 1971. For Turkey to join the European Union it must act like Europeans and Americans; i.e. recognize fundamental religious freedom and inalienable human rights.
3. Contact our brothers and sisters of all faith and creeds, whether they be Orthodox, Catholic or Protestant – Muslim or Jewish and ask them to join in a united stance for religious tolerance and freedom of faith.
These are the true calls to action to which we must respond. Let us resolve to ourselves and the world that a true tragedy of our generation – the extinguishment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate – must be averted.
Sincerely,
Anthony J. Limberakis, MD
Archon Akoutarios
National Commander
You are wrong about your history. Colin Powell's arrogance and incompetence was to blame. He held a planned $30 billion loan to Ankara over their head to pressure them into letting us attack from their territory. Powell did not visit Ankara even once. By contrast James Baker in 1990-91 visited 3 times and the U.S. was granted full rights to use Turkish territory. I have a Turkish stockbroker friend who showed me cartoons from his home newspapers showing the Turkish PM as a U.S. lapdog, holding a check for $30b. He predicted that Turks were far too proud and would reject the loan, despite how much they needed it. He was right. It was a shock to Powell, Bush and the Joint Chiefs when the Turkish Parliament voted down the PM's plan to allow us territorial right-of-way. Powell is a stupid fool, as all loyal Bush Republicans found out before too long.
Restore Hagia Sophia as a church... just as soon as the Catholics give the Pantheon in Rome back to the priests of Jupiter, Apollo and Dionysus.
Istanbul is just a version of the Greek for "The City."
How dare you express an intelligent view on an otherwise juvenile and hypocritical thread?
Istanbul is just a version of the Greek for “The City.”
Actually Istanbul is Greek for “to the City”-—”Eis tin Poli”—whenever someone was traveling on a road they would ask “where are you going?” the answer would inevitably be: Eis tin poli.
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