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Hagia Sophia becomes a mosque - what it means

FollowingHim

FollowingHim

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Hagia Sophia in Constantinople / Istanbul is one of the greatest cathedrals in Christian history. It was built in 532-537AD as the centre of worship for the Eastern Roman / Byzantine Empire - but replaced earlier churches, the first built in 360AD. It is a historical centre of worship for the Orthodox Church just as St Peter's Basilica is to the Catholics - except Hagia Sophia is far more ancient.

When the Ottomans took Constantinople in 1453, Hagia Sophia was turned into a mosque. This was a change of enormous symbolic importance - it symbolised the subjugation of Christianity under Islam.

When the Ottoman Empire collapsed at the end of WWI, the secular Turkish state was formed under Ataturk (the general who had defeated the British / ANZAC forces at Gallipoli, and who became extremely respected in the West). Hagia Sophia was converted to a museum in 1935. This again was an act of deep significance - it recognised the past (1100 years of the site as a church, nearly 500 years as a mosque), but neither history now subjugated the other, as neither worshipped at the site. Turkey was now secular, and this was now a secular site. Secular Turkey then became an ally of the West and a member of NATO.

Now, Hagia Sophia has been made a mosque again. This is a very serious matter. Turkey has been moving back towards Islamism under Erdogan for many years, this is just one step in a journey, but a very symbolic step.

This illustrates Erdogan's intention to revive the Ottoman Empire, subjugate Christianity, and make Turkey a leader of the Islamic world once again.

This is done at a time when Turkey (second largest military in NATO) has troops fighting in Syria, Iraq and Libya. In all three cases, these are proxy wars with Turkey's opponents being supported by Russia / USA (Syrian government / Syrian Kurds), Russia / Egypt / France (Libya), and the USA (Iraq). In other words, proxy wars against Western ("Christian") nations, some being their own NATO allies, or other factions of Islam.

What is most concerning is the lack of protest and outrage among Christian leaders, and Western politicians. This is Erdogan throwing a massive challenge to the West. If nobody objects, he'll be emboldened to do far more. So this will be the start of much worse to come, not an isolated symbol.
 
Does this mean we have to start the Crusades back up all over again?
 
“access to this unique monument of world culture will be guaranteed for all those who wish to visit, including foreign citizens, while the Christian relics will be preserved.”

Suuurre
 
rockfox said:
What Christian leaders? They're all compromised and controlled. And the Western politicians are by and large anti-Christian now.

Although one leader did speak up...

https://orthodoxtimes.com/putin-communicates-with-erdogan-on-hagia-sophia/
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Which illustrates that Russia is now the only major Christian power in the world - but even they see this as an internal Turkish matter and have made it clear they won't interfere.

It would be very interesting to try and compile a list of Christian countries. I'd have to do a lot of research to figure out which ones to put on the list unfortunately.
Armenia - they're seriously in danger from two Muslim neighbours and in no position to do anything outside their own protection.
There must be some decent countries left in Eastern Europe that haven't suffered the rot of the West too much yet. Poland? Serbia?
Also, there'd be countries in Africa and South America. Maybe Uganda for instance.

The universal similarity among all these countries is that they are poor and disunited.
 
steve said:
“access to this unique monument of world culture will be guaranteed for all those who wish to visit, including foreign citizens, while the Christian relics will be preserved.”

Suuurre
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That may not be a lie, in that it was a mosque for so long that whatever Christian relics still exist are the ones the Muslims have already chosen to preserve for 500 years of operation as a mosque. Anything they find particularly offensive would have been destroyed centuries ago. There's probably no need to demolish anything else in returning it to being a mosque.
 
rockfox said:
He was criticizing him about the Armenian genocide; which resulted in the murder of almost 4 million Christians.

And we let this country into NATO. That would be like if Germany denied the Holocaust ever happened. Can you even imagine?
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Unfortunately, as successful as the Armenians have been in this country, and around the world since their diaspora, the economic and political clout of Turkey makes it prohibitive for the West to acknowledge this tragedy of the highest order. Armenia was the first official Christian nation and those guys would rather eat lead than deny their Lord. I admire them deeply. It's a shame they're continuously treated like crap.
 
Mojo said:
Unfortunately, as successful as the Armenians have been in this country, and around the world since their diaspora, the economic and political clout of Turkey makes it prohibitive for the West to acknowledge this tragedy of the highest order. Armenia was the first official Christian nation and those guys would rather eat lead than deny their Lord. I admire them deeply. It's a shame they're continuously treated like crap.
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What economic and political clout? And this goes deeper than just token jesters; they basically held the EU at gunpoint with the immigration flood issue.
 
rockfox said:
What economic and political clout? And this goes deeper than just token jesters; they basically held the EU at gunpoint with the immigration flood issue.
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Uh, Turkey is a top 19 economy in the world. Armenia is down near the bottom with the likes of small African countries.

Turkey is also a regional force in the ME. It has strategic airspace and is a gateway to Russia in the north and Iran, Iraq, Israel, etc.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_(nominal)
 
rockfox said:
And that gives them greater pull than the whole of Europe?
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I was thinking of the Armenian treatment in the US. Offending an economic player and regional powerhouse is not worth (in our politicians' minds) to acknowledge the genocide and continued mistreatments lest the Turks retaliate.
 
Mojo said:
I was thinking of the Armenian treatment in the US. Offending an economic player and regional powerhouse is not worth (in our politicians' minds) to acknowledge the genocide and continued mistreatments lest the Turks retaliate.
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Good point. And in the American case there is the complication that our officials are entirely corrupt, being widely bought off or blackmailed by foreign special interests of all kinds. If I remember the details correctly there is also a significant Turkish presence here in the US by way of a previous Turkish regime (opposition party or religious sect?) in exile here that has grown quite rich running charter schools that are funded by federal dollars (while indoctrinating the American children into Islam).
 
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