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Vatican silent as verdict triggers geopolitical tremorsISTANBUL (ChurchMilitant.com) - In a historic verdict, Turkey's top court has returned the world's greatest Byzantine basilica to its previous status as a mosque after it abolished President Atatürk's 1934 decision to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum. Turkey's highest administrative court, the Council of State, reached a unanimous verdict declaring that president Kemal Atatürk's cabinet had no right to turn Hagia Sophia into a museum as part of his secularist reforms and has rendered the decision unlawful. The court is expected to deliver its judgment Friday, but Turkish journalist Mehmet Ardıç, a close...

In a “resounding” intervention with multidimensional nuances on the issue of Hagia Sophia, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow called not to turn Hagia Sophia into a mosque. In a statement, Patriarch Kirill stressed his deep concern over the calls of certain Turkish politicians to reconsider the status of Hagia Sophia as a museum, “one of the greatest monuments of Christian culture.” He highlighted that there have been different, sometimes rather difficult periods in the history of relations between Rus’ and Constantinople. But “the Russian people responded in the past and respond now with bitterness and indignation to any attempt to degrade...

Moscow, July 6, Interfax - The Russian Orthodox Church has spoken against transformation of the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Istanbul, which currently has the museum status, into a mosque. "There must be no return to the Medieval Period. We live in a multipolar world, a multi-confessional world, and feelings of believers must be respected," head of the Moscow Patriarchate's Department for External Church Relations Metropolitan Hilarion said in the Church and the World program of the television channel Rossiya 24. He admitted that modern Turkey had a predominantly Muslim population but said "there is no deficit of mosques" in Istanbul,...

In this Friday, Oct. 26, 2018 file photo, released by Oman News Agency, Oman's Sultan Qaboos, left, receives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Muscat, Oman. (Oman News Agency via AP, File) The “last decade,� notes James Sinkinson in a perceptive article, has seen a “sea change� in Israel’s ties with “key Arab states.� And that last decade is also the one in which Benjamin Netanyahu (again, after a stint in the 1990s) has been Israel’s prime minister — specifically since March 2009.True, conditions for enhanced Arab-Israeli ties have been propitious — particularly the behavior of regional bully Iran, a...

New emerging DNA evidence suggests that living Greeks are indeed descendants of the ancient Mycenaeans, who ruled mainland Greece and the Aegean Sea from 1,600 BC to 1,200 BC. The proof comes from a study in which scientists analyzed the genes from the teeth of 19 people across various archaeological sites within mainland Greece and Mycenae. A total of 1.2 million letters of genetic code were compared to those of 334 people across the world. Genetic information was also compiled from a group of thirty modern Greek individuals in order to compare it to the ancient genomes. This allowed researchers...

BEIRUT, LEBANON (10:30 A.M.) – On Saturday, the Greek Army announced its readiness to respond to any steps by Turkey, threatening to “burn everyone who sets foot on Greek soil.” A Greek news website quoted the statements of the Chief of Staff of the Greek Army, Constantius Florus, who did not rule out the occurrence of a “military conflict with Turkey in the event that Ankara proceeded to cross the red lines,” noting that “the military conflict is possible, and no one can exclude this possibility. And if anything like that happens, this will not be limited to one point,...

Agia Sophia belongs to Turkey, and it can do with it as it pleases without Greece’s permission, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan emphasized yesterday in the latest ongoing spat between Turkey and Greece over the fate of the iconic cathedral-turned-mosque-turned-museum. “Now they’re talking about Agia Sophia,” Erdogan said in response to Greece’s reaction to his own statements about reconverting Agia Sophia into a mosque. “They say, ‘You won’t turn it into a mosque.’ Are you from the Turkish administration?” he asked, reports Romfea. Turkey does not need to ask permission from Greece to change the status of the world-famous building,...

The announcement Thursday that the partners of the Leviathan gas reservoir will invest $3.75 billion in its development is a devastating blow to the BDS movement, Eli Groner, director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The development of Leviathan, which is scheduled to take about three years, constitutes both the largest energy project and financial investment in Israel in the country's history.

Putin and Netanyahu to strike deal on Leviathan gas field The Australian October 20, 2015 12:00AM Russia wants to be the major partner in Israel’s offshore ­Leviathan natural gas field in the eastern Mediterranean, a top ­Israeli foreign affairs analyst said in Sydney yesterday. Ehud Yaari, the senior Middle East commentator for ­Israel’s Channel Two news, said “everybody regrets� a deal was not done with Woodside and that until now Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had ruled out a Gazprom deal. Gazprom bid for a stake in the project in 2012 but was beaten by Woodside, which pulled out of...

Israel made another discovery off its coast. The newly discovered field, Royee, may hold up to 3.2 Tcf of natural gas according to a statement made by the Israeli partners in the field Ratio and Israel Opportunity who hold respectively 70%, and 10% stakes. The remaining 20% of the field are held by Edison. Royee is located about 150 kilometers offshore Israel close to its maritime borders with Cyprus and Egypt. The field’s size is yet to be confirmed, but current estimates suggest it is the third largest field discovered to date in Israeli waters after the Leviathan discovered by...

While the Middle East may have a reputation for instability and occasional violence, there's no denying the vast riches it has to offer patient investors. Just months after the announcement of $1 trillion worth of minerals in Afghanistan comes word of oil discoveries in Israel... Israel may finally be able to tell its Middle Eastern neighbors where they can stick their oil — something the United States has wanted to do for years. In one of the most sought-after parts of the world, 4.3 billion barrels of oil could be sitting in the Leviathan project beneath the Mediterranean, according to...

In continuation of the detailed underwater survey and mapping of the seabed in the wider area of the Subsea Greek - Italian Interconnection Pipeline ("Poseidon" Pipeline) in the period from 11 to 17 May 2012, the scheduled archaeological investigation was carried out. The above survey was carried out by the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) under the supervision and coordination of the Ephorate of Underwater Antiquities in the part of the programmed routing of the pipeline on the Greek seabed up to the boundaries of the Greek Exclusive Economic Zone with Italy. The survey revealed three ancient shipwrecks, two...

Egypt has announced an anti-Turkey alliance that includes Greece, Cyprus, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and France to confront Turkish moves in Libya and the Mediterranean. The announcement was made during a virtual meeting with the foreign ministers of these countries on May 11. In a joint statement issued shortly after the meeting, the five-party alliance said it will focus on confronting the Turkish moves in the territorial waters in Cyprus, where Turkey has been carrying out “illegal” excavations in the Mediterranean under Cyprus sovereignty. The alliance also condemned Turkey’s escalated violations of Greek airspace.  The European Union condemned May 16...

Covid-19 came late to Turkey - on 11 March - but soon singed every corner of the country. Within a month all 81 provinces had been affected. It was the one of the fastest growing outbreaks in the world - worse than China or the UK. There were fears that the death toll would soar turning Turkey into another Italy, which was then the hardest hit country. Three months on that hasn't happened, even without a total lockdown. The official death toll is 4,397. Some doctors here dispute that, claiming the real figure could be twice as high because Turkey...

Greece on Sunday dismissed reports that Turkish soldiers had occupied a strip of Greek territory in the Evros border region, where Athens is expanding a fence to keep migrants out. Foreign Minister Nikos Dendias said allegations, picked up the the British press, that Turkish troops had occupied a patch of land that is normally submerged at this time of year on Greece's side of the border were "utterly false". Dendias acknowledged, in an interview with Skai TV, that "a presence of Turkish forces has been observed in a strip of land where some preparatory works had been made by the...

Turkish president issues threat over new government’s plans to apply sovereignty, calls Jerusalem a ‘red line’ for world’s Muslims Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened Israel over its new government’s plan to annex portions of the West Bank. “We are witnessing a new plan of occupation and annexation by Israel that threatens Palestinian sovereignty and is contrary to international law,” Erdogan said in a video address late Sunday for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. “We won’t allow the transfer of Palestinian land to anyone.” “Turkey is the only voice defending the Palestinians today,” Erdogan said in a televised...

115 years ago, divers found a hunk of bronze off a Greek island. It changed our understanding of human history. One hundred fifteen years ago, an archeologist was sifting through objects found in the wreck of a 2,000-year-old vessel off the Greek island Antikythera. Among the wreck’s treasures — beautiful vases and pots, jewelry, a bronze statue of an ancient philosopher — was the most peculiar thing: a series of brass gears and dials mounted in a case the size of a mantel clock. Archeologists dubbed the instrument the Antikythera mechanism. The genius — and mystery — of this piece...

The power of the word classic cannot be underestimated, communicating as it does the idea of excellence, truth, order, discipline, and beauty. The word “classic” brings to mind something that has withstood the test of time, and by virtue of this fact, participates in some way in the timeless and the eternal. And what is the only thing we know of with these attributes but God and His Eternal Word? When looked at this way, every Christian should want a classical education for their children: It has everything we instinctively want. But when we examine this word “classic,” we find...

Following a police investigation, 20 people, including a priest, will be charged with breaking the lockdown decree for allegedly attending a Church service in Erimi in the southwestern Limassol District on St. George’s Day, April 23. Police were tipped off that a service was being held at the Church of St. George on its patronal feast day and arrived to find 16 cars parked outside, reports in-cyprus. However, when the police entered the church, they found only the priest and two members of the public, who were charged that day. Tracing the license plates on the cars outside the church,...

The HMCS Fredericton, participating in NATO’s Operation Reassurance meant to bolster security in Central and Eastern Europe, lost contact with a CH-148 Cyclone helicopter during a training exercise. “The cause of this accident is unknown at this time,” Defense Minister Harjit Sajjan said. The aircraft’s data and voice recorders have been recovered, he said. General Jonathan Vance, Chief of the Defence Staff, said there was a “very sizable debris field” in an area of the Ionian Sea where the aircraft crashed. The crew of a C-148 Cyclone helicopter, attached to Royal Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Fredricton, which crashed in the...