Votes, Churches and other relevant frivolities

A journalist friend of mine will get crazy about this article. She'd say "too many subjects in one single article" or "it's too long and complex to be read easily, and there are too many points to consider". Yes, I know. But in Turkey, the agenda is full of such frivolities that public opinion takes so seriously; one leads to another, and one ends up with such a confused and paralyzed mind; such articles are a matter of daily reality, and one has to live with them. As one does with chaotic traffic, and stupid rules of everyday life that no-one obeys.

First there was the referendum. In accordance with the prerequisites of European Union membership, and long term goals of the prevailing government such as eliminating the pressure to their administration by the status quo supporters in Turkey, majority in the parliament come up with a package of constitutional changes. The package included several amendments, most of which were supported even by the opposition. But a few, especially concerning the changes in the way that higher court members would be appointed, were highly criticized. The vote in parliament were a little shy of the needed 2/3rd majority; so according to the constitution, people had to approve the package by voting on a referendum. Until this point everything seemed in order.


As the referendum approached, it turned into a fanfare. Both government and opposition leaders approached the public as if they were demanding votes for a common election, and the discussions went on and on on their private virtues, past and capabilities instead of the virtues or hence the lack of, of the amendments in the package. The language immediately became rude and what is left over is only a bunch of insults and outrage.

Ah, yes, 'yes' votes won, and now the administration have a huge task of amending a huge number of laws accordingly. The real discovery about the referendum is that both sides of the divide in Turkey, namely the status-quo supporters (so called right wing and ultra-nationalists) versus liberals and conservatives (read islamists) of every make and mold, both are radicalized to the extreme. Neither party has any tolerance for each other, both are very hostile to people of different views and the society is getting bipolar continuously. Both sides seriously think the others are traitors of the nation.

And both parties think all Christians living in the country have already sold it out.

First there was the mass at Soumela near Trabizond. Greeks around the world collected there for a mass to celebrate "The Dormition of the most holy lady Theotokos and ever-virgin Mary" on August 15th, under the scrutiny and permissions of the state. However since the venue is considered to be a museum, the permissions for a mass there only had to be executed outside the premises. Among cries of threats and assaults hundreds of Greek Orthodox believers gathered, prayed and danced to their own music afterwards. Among them, Pontus Greeks celebrated an unexpected return to their motherland. Feelings and hysteria were galore.

The public at large in Turkey was agitated. Since they saw every Greek or Armenian existence on their land as a threat in their conscience, squeaking voices were heard in the media criticizing the state for "letting enemies of the state to demonstrate on the motherland soil".

And there came September the 19th. After 95 years of void, the Holy Cross Church on the island of Akhtamar in the Lake of Van witnessed a resurrection of enormous importance. But not the resurrection of the Holy Cross it was named after. Eastern Orthodox Armenians were excited everywhere came the month of September. It has long been decided that newly renovated Church of Holy Cross in Akhtamar would be inaugurated for service and this service would be repeated once every year on the same date. But then again, it was claimed to be a museum as well sharing the fate of many churches in Turkey including Agia Sophia in Istanbul. So at first the state refused to put a cross on op of the church of Holy Cross. All Armenian churches including the patriarchate in Armenia protested this development, and declared they would not attend the proceedings.

Turkish state fall back against the protests and declared it would erect the cross on top of the building after the mass of September the 19th. This, we will yet to see. But for many, who attended the mass yesterday, it was a day to remember despite everything. Many had come to Turkey for the first time, a land they consider their motherland. The fact that Akhtamar is considered to be one of the most holy places in southern Armenia also helped the outburst of feelings among the prayers. Armenian Eastern Orthodox Patriarch supported the reasons of other churches for not attending the ceremony in his inauguration speech, but he said it was nonetheless a beginning for mending of old wounds. It was indeed. Near future would be good grounds to test the sincerity of Turkish authorities to provide a lebensraum for its dwindling Christian minorities and their rights to perform not only their religious traditions but also their cultural customs.

Yet this author finds it necessary to connect the dots here. In the turn of the first decade of the millennium in Turkey, we are now faced with a bipolar society, with raised levels of both intolerance and nationalism. Acts of violence against religious or ethnic minorities are on the rise every year since 2002 elections. There seems to be a dialogue between minority leaders and government officials but in the final analysis, every request hits the same concrete wall as it did for the last 80 something years. And yes, "fear and loathing in las vegas" is the name of the game after the deaths of Hrant Dink (a Turkish-Armenian journalist), two fathers of the Catholic Church and a Christian publisher.

Turkey has a record of failing every test of sincerity against its minorities for centuries. If it has a tendency to change, albeit rising nationalism among its citizens, it is yet to be seen. I'm afraid that these efforts will end up as food for the upcoming elections in 2011, and will be forgotten for another lifetime.


(For background information and in depth information on above mentioned facts please read Fréderike Geerdink's "Church or Museum".)

...hardly loving...

when their hands are stitched
stitched forever, for a century to come,
when connected, through their minds,
connected despite the distance.
their minds are one in all, in all the nightmares
of the streets lost, the blood
in their hands, on their feet;
their hands stitched into each other
their hands in blood.
are there endless prairies in far away lands
are there dreams of birds praying on waste
of those who doesn't know
are you comfortable now
are you content
your children have no voice,
they are still ablaze
whom you call home for dinner
when the sun-of a thousand years-fade away
their feet are bare
their shadows or their faces longer
creeping into a nightmare
everyday
remember sunflower leftovers on your doorsteps
remember the laughter
watch over your elderly
watch over your hands
despite all and still
stitched together.

(In memoriam to the martyrs of Smyrna) 

"Ta Septemvriana"-Last hope lost

Tonight is the night many of my follow citizens spent a night in Konstantinoupolis (Istanbul) fifty-five years ago in nightmares. Today their sons were killed, today, fifty-five years ago their daughters were abused. Their shops were destroyed. But their pride was intact.

They did what a real citizen would do. They thought the pogrom against the Greeks of K'poli (Istanbul) and Smyrna (Izmir) was an act of a mob. They waited for the state to protect them. They didn't know then, the state itself was behind the mob. The last remnants of the Greek population of Asia Minor would be sent away. 5o years of ethnic cleansing against the Greeks was about to be completed.


They also didn't know they were spending one of the last nights that they would in a city that they have built almost two millennia ago. A city that they created, embellished and worshipped above all. A city where its Greek inhabitants survived centuries of abuse, humiliation and torture. But that was it. As an infamous patriarch of the turn of the century couldn't save them when Greek Republic was formed, as banishing the newly born Greece couldn't save his head, the fate was written on the wall.

The father of the protagonist of the movie "Politiki Kouzina" (Cuisine of Poli) narrates about the night they were deported from the city. The policemen comes and asks them to leave, while whispering to his ear; "but of course if you turn muslim, you can stay". The father still cries when he says that he thought about it for some seconds. He couldn't decide right away. Noone can decide right away when it comes to this city. But even they thought, their blood, their beliefs, and most of all their belief to mother Greece, made them leave the city of their dreams.

So they went.

Their bodies are gone for decades. But their souls linger on. When I hear Dalaras sing "The bells of Hagia Sophia", I still hear the chorus of countless refugees. This is what they are still. Premature kids of mother Greece; belonging nowhere, still in limbo.

You can hear Theia Eleni weeping if you listen carefully on the pavement at Yeniköy. You can see the absurd looks on the faces of private security personnel at Fanari. Or you may take the "vapori" (steamship) to the Princess islands. Where you can listen the cries of sirens longing for their habitual songs of amines.

Yes, for half a century, the city lost its children. But that unfortunately was not the gain of another. Children were simply lost. That's all.

Maybe soon in time, no one would remember the citizens of K'Poli. But the city will. From the walls of Hagia Sophia, or from the ruins of a Byzantine aqua-duct, you will still hear the song "Kaiktsi", longing for a lover lost on a different shore, in the centuries to come. Because a child never forgets the womb he was created in.