Tag: Turkey

Liturgy and the Limits of Minority Rights <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>The Opening of the “Taşhoran Church and Cultural Center” in Malatya, Turkey</span>
Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Religion and Politics

Liturgy and the Limits of Minority Rights
The Opening of the “Taşhoran Church and Cultural Center” in Malatya, Turkey

“To find something that is lost is always a happy occasion!” So said Patriarch Sahak II Maşalyan of the Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople, during his sermon at the first Divine Liturgy to be celebrated at the Holy Trinity Armenian Apostolic Church in Malatya, Turkey, in over one hundred years. Reconstructed through joint efforts of the…

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The Meaning of Hagia Sophia: A Traveler’s Perspective
Culture and Arts

The Meaning of Hagia Sophia: A Traveler’s Perspective

The church of Hagia Sophia was the preeminent monument of Christian architecture and an active church for almost a millennium until the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, when the clergy and people were slaughtered as they celebrated their last Liturgy. Hagia Sophia was used as a mosque for Muslim prayers until 1934, when the new…

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Eliminating Armenians from Artsakh: Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s Perpetual War against Armenia <br><span style='color:#8D8381;font-size:18px;'>We Cannot Afford the Media's False Equivalences</span>
Religion and Politics

Eliminating Armenians from Artsakh: Azerbaijan’s and Turkey’s Perpetual War against Armenia
We Cannot Afford the Media's False Equivalences

by Yelena Ambartsumian | български | Ελληνικά | ქართული | Русский | Српски Note: Because of the urgency of the current situation in Armenia and Azerbaijan and the importance of providing reliable background information, the following essay is an exception to our typical length and op-ed format and includes an extensive excerpt from an academic…

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Hymn of Entry to the Hagia Sophia
Culture and Arts, Liturgical Life, Theology

Hymn of Entry to the Hagia Sophia

This essay is published here on the occasion of the first prayers following Hagia Sophia’s reversion to a mosque, July 24, 2020. It was spring 1964—a difficult year for the Orthodox Greek brothers of Constantinople, because of the well-known anti-Greek acts of the Turks, due to Cyprus. I was in the Theological Academy of Chalke…

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The Death of Secularism:  Russia, Turkey, and Western Cluelessness
Orthodoxy and Modernity, Religion and Politics

The Death of Secularism: Russia, Turkey, and Western Cluelessness

“Secular” is a tricky word. Most associate it with “no religion,” “absence of religion,” or “decline of religion.” At one time, it was pretty much the consensus in the Western world that with increased modernization, which usually meant technological and scientific advancement, religion would no longer really be needed and would simply fade away. This is one of…

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Hagia Sophia’s Status as a Mosque Mocks Prophet Muhammad’s Covenant with Christianity
Culture and Arts, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations, Religion and Conflict

Hagia Sophia’s Status as a Mosque Mocks Prophet Muhammad’s Covenant with Christianity

by Ani Zonneveld In 2019, I had the pleasure of immersing myself in the history of both Christianity and Islam, where they are woven together in the beautiful and magnificent architecture of the Hagia Sophia. During my trip, numerous Christian icons, which were plastered over during the Ottoman Empire, were being uncovered and restored, bringing…

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Hagia Sophia and the Challenge of Religious Freedom
Culture and Arts, Religion and Politics

Hagia Sophia and the Challenge of Religious Freedom

by George Demacopoulos | ελληνικά | српски Christian leaders and secular governments around the world have condemned, with good reason, the recent decision of a Turkish court to reconvert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Indeed, this ruling is just the latest step in a century-long effort by the Turkish government to erase both the history…

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The Hagia Sophia: A Museum or a Place of Worship?
Culture and Arts, Ecumenical and Interfaith Relations

The Hagia Sophia: A Museum or a Place of Worship?

by Thomas Bremer I categorically refuse to pay an entrance fee for a church, out of principle. When I was in Bratislava, and the Catholic cathedral charged a very small fee, I did not enter. When I returned to the wonderful Cathedral Church in Trogir, Croatia, two years ago, it was selling entrance tickets—so I…

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Government Report Highlights Policy Priorities for Middle Eastern Christians
Documents, Religion and Politics

Government Report Highlights Policy Priorities for Middle Eastern Christians

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recently released its 2020 Annual Report. As Christian persecution intensifies across the globe, the report provides much needed data and findings from high-persecution regions, such as the Middle East. Importantly, it also recommends the worst violators of religious freedom at the governmental level to the Department…

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The Armenian Patriarchate and the Sanasaryan Han
Culture and Arts, Religion and Conflict

The Armenian Patriarchate and the Sanasaryan Han

Last month, the Court of Cassation in Turkey ruled that the historic and contested Sanasaryan Han will be the property of the Turkish state. Built in 1895, the Han (“Inn”) was bought by the foundation established by the philanthropist Mkrtich Sanasaryan to support the Sanasaryan College in the city of Erzurum in eastern Anatolia. It…

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The Systematic Persecution of Religious Minorities in Turkey
Culture and Arts, Religion and Conflict

The Systematic Persecution of Religious Minorities in Turkey

Despite the world-wide recognition of the status of His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew as the spiritual leader of all Orthodox Christians, the government of Turkey will give no legal standing and status to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the historical Holy Center of Orthodox Christianity at the Phanar, in Istanbul. The lack of legal standing and status…

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Public Orthodoxy seeks to promote conversation by providing a forum for diverse perspectives on contemporary issues related to Orthodox Christianity. The positions expressed in the articles on this website are solely the author’s and do not necessarily represent the views of the editors or the Orthodox Christian Studies Center.

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Public Orthodoxy is a publication of the Orthodox Christian Studies Center of Fordham University