The doors of the Sumela Monastery reopened in June 2010, after 88 years. The Turkish government had given permission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate to have a patriarchal liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption every year. That permission has been suddenly revoked, perhaps permanently.
That the Greek Orthodox need special permission to celebrate divine services in any of their churches in what is now Turkey is a dark reminder of the Islamic oppression of Eastern Christians from the mid-7th century to today, and for the Greeks, especially from the Muslim conquest of Constantinople in 1453 through the defeat of the Ottoman Empire by the Western Powers during World War I.
For background, here is an excerpt from my article, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew Assassination Plot in Historical Context:
Ever since the Fall of Constantinople to the Muslim armies in 1453, Christians in what is now Turkey have been reduced to second-class citizens (and persecuted nearly to extinction) through the institution of the dhimma, the contract of protection which subjugates Christians to Muslim rule under humiliating, demeaning terms.
Under the dhimma, Christians have to pay the exorbitant jizya tax, cannot build new churches, cannot repair existing ones, cannot share their faith outside their church buildings, cannot convert Muslims, etc. One aspect of the dhimma most terrifying is the concept of “collective punishment.” If one Christian violates the dhimma contract, Muslims may attack any or all Christians…
Important to keep in mind is the role played not only by the faithful Patriarch Martyrs, but by other clergy and even monastics in the eventual liberation of Greece [in the early 19th century]… Eventually, the Serbs and Bulgarians threw off the Muslim yoke as well.
It was this series of humiliating defeats during the nineteenth century, and losses in the Balkan Wars of the early twentieth century, which enraged the Turkish Muslims, who turned on the weakest elements of their Christian population, precipitating their infamous genocide against the Christians of Armenia, Greece, Pontus, and Syria, massacring over 3.6 million men, women and children (some dying from starvation, disease and the forced deportations) from 1894 to 1922.
Sporadic persecutions against remaining Christians extended well into the 1950s, perhaps the worst example being the Istanbul Pogroms of 1955, which dealt a crushing blow to the Orthodox Christian community in Turkey.
The Greek population of Turkey had already been reduced to about 120,000 in 1927 (following the main period of the Orthodox Christian Genocide); by 1978 it had collapsed to only 7,000. According to the Human Rights Watch, by 2006 there were only 2500 Greeks in Turkey.
So, we see that, just as they have done since the 15th century, the Muslim Turks continue to demean and humiliate the Orthodox Christian congregation of Turkey, which they have already persecuted nearly to extinction.
This is the hallmark of classic Islam.
“Turkish Authorities Ban Christian Liturgy in Panagia Sumela Monastery,” by Philip Chrysopoulos, Greek Reporter, August 11, 2016:
Turkish authorities notified the Ecumenical Patriarchate that the license for the yearly mass at Panagia Sumela Monastery in Trabzon is revoked.
After five consecutive years during which it was allowed to have Orthodox Christian divine liturgy on August 15 at Panagia Sumela Monastery in Trabzon, this year the permit was revoked. The official reason given is that during the monastery restoration works, static problems appeared in the building.
The ban has caused great disappointment to thousands of Pontian people worldwide, and people from Greece who had planned to travel to the region these days to celebrate the Feast of the Assumption on August 15.
Sources within the Patriarchate of Constantinople who prefer to remain anonymous and many Pontic Greeks believe that the construction static problems invoked is a pretext and they fear that Christian mass will never be allowed in the historic monastery again.
The doors of the Sumela Monastery reopened in June 2010, after 88 years. The Turkish government had given permission to the Ecumenical Patriarchate to have a patriarchal liturgy for the Feast of the Assumption every year.
The license for the monastery to open its doors to the Christian faithful once a year was permanent. However, at the end of May the Turkish authorities warned the Ecumenical Patriarchate that the license is revoked, and have not clarified whether the revocation will only apply for this year.
Situated on a steep cliff 1,200 meters above sea level and facing the Altındere valley, the monastery is a site of great historical and cultural significance, as well as a major tourist attraction within Altındere National Park.
No Fear says
Erdogan + goats = true love.
Carolyne says
His wife might be a goat because she is all wrapped up in a shroud and one can’t really tell.
Musalmaanmasala says
Erdogan’s wife a goat. What a joke? I bet he cannot tell his wife from a goat. But then the sensual pleasure is the same.
What I cannot understand is why in a “progressive modern state” that Turkey professes toe be should a licence be taken to conduct a religious ceremony.
Does the same apply to all the mosques in Turkey whether crumbling or whether “construction static problems” do not apply to them.
Erdogan you are nothing but a sham.
Jay Boo says
Pre-pubescent goats are halal.
They are served as either a meal or as a wife in Islam.
Robert Chip Korngiebel says
Don’t fear ISN’T Turkey is the next true Caliphate……… Think about it………
EL says
If only we had a time machine!
Kay says
Sad.
Thanks for the report; there’s no way I would have known about this. And for the amazing pictures.
Champ says
“This is the hallmark of classic Islam.”
Indeed!
Some “religion of peace”, eh?
Angemon says
Yup.
John spielman says
No it’s the religion of PIECE(s)
Anita Alexander says
An error in the article states those who were killed were Syrians when in fact they were Assyrians. 800,000 Assyrians were killed in addition to the Armenians and Greeks. Turkey was playing nice in order to join the EU, but since that is not happening they are showing their true colors. They are still promoting the lie that the Christians killed each other in a civil war. We had relatives killed in those days and we know the truth.
Ciudadano says
Peace requires tolerance. Islam is not tolerant hence Islam is not peaceful. This post is just one more example of the islamic intolerance.
TH says
Pontus was the place from which some of the greatest Fathers of the Church of the fourth century came, especially the Cappadocian Fathers, St. Basil the Great, St. Gregory of Nazianzen and St. Gregory of Nyssa, the brother of St. Basil. These three made an enormous contribution to the correct formulation of the doctrine of the Trinity. There were many other saints from there in the early Christian centuries.
boocat says
Nazi swine. Erdogan staged that “coup” himself to destroy what was left of Turkey. The islamic world is a blighted hole of hate.
ScottM says
Erdogan will turn this into a mosque.
John spielman says
If he does, I can only hope it falls off the cliff and into the ravine.
Johan Elzinga says
It is getting better and better with Erdogan’s Great Democracy. The People rule indeed, it’s just that they are only considered People if they have the Correct Opinions. Otherwise you will be locked up and threatened with the Death Penalty. For threatening the Democracy.
Jack says
America is on the same path, thanks to the Oligarchs in Washington, D.C, the lying Vermin in the media and the millions of “Useful Idiots”
John spielman says
Yup, perhaps it is because if we don’t worship Jesus the Christ voluntarily ,we will be forced to worship the Islamic ANTICHRIST involuntarily.
The Western world would not be in this mess with islam threatening to conquer us by stealth jihad, if we had not rejected Christ and kicked Him out of our schools and govt.
AnneM says
This is why this year’s Presidential Election is going to be so very important.
dumbledoresarmy says
At the core of Islam is megalomania and malignant narcissism. Islam practises non-reciprocity. They demand to do and do and do and never be done to (Chesterton said of the true savage that he ‘laughs when he hurts you, and *howls* when *you* hurt *him*”).
Where they do not yet have control and are in minority they *demand* toleration, accommodation, indeed, they demand to dictate to everyone everywhere; but wherever they dominate they treat non-Muslim minorities like *sh*t*.
And , frankly, I am sick of it. I am disgusted by it.
Muslims *demand* that they be able to build huge mosques everywhere; that they be able to take over streets and squares for loud, ostentatious mass threat displays by male Muslims, i.e. their public ‘prayers’.
At the same time, Muslims squat on the glorious Hagia Sophia – which was built as a Christian church, and was a Christian church for over *one thousand years* before Mohammedans invaded and slaughtered thousands of helpless non-combatant Christians inside the church itself, and turned it into a mosque; and Muslims squat on the Temple Mount, perform their ‘prayers’, and *howl* and shriek with rage if they so much as suspect that a Jewish visitor might be uttering a whispered prayer under his breath.
It’s *disgusting*.
Not one more mosque should be permitted to be built in any land ruled by free people. (And *any* mosque found to be hosting hate preachers/ inciting antisemitism/ inciting Jihad/ advocating any one or more of those sharia practices that violate Infidel law and morality/ and/ or has been frequented by anyone who has plotted, or attempted, or in fact carried out jihad, and/ or threatened / attacked/ killed an ‘apostate’ or a ‘blasphemer’, should be bulldozed flat and the land resumed by the Infidel state for Infidel purposes, and the imam/s booted right out of the country).
And Muslim massed threat displays should be *banned* (and, if engaged in in defiance of such ruling, instantly broken up by law enforcement, as a disturbance of the peace). And so should the azan be banned altogether.
Muslims do NOT practise ‘do as you would be done by’.
So it’s time for them to get a taste of the negative corollary – ‘be done by as you did’.
Charli Main says
@ DDA
Last year I visited the tomb of St Nicholas in Demre ( Myra ) a Byzantine church built around 520 AD.
This sacred Christian place was, until recently, used as a Russian Orthodox Church when it was declared a ” museum” by the Turkish Government. No religious services or acts of worship are permitted by the “museum attendants”
On entering the church, I saw that previous visitors has lit a dozen or so votary candles near the altar.
A hijab Muslima ” attendant” came into the room and went berserk !!!! She smashed the candels down with her baton and then kicked them out of the church with her feet.
Can you imagine the mass hysteria of the western MSM if a Christian spat or urinated in a Mosque.
xxxxxxx two faced, hypocritical Muslim bastards.
Carolyne says
Dumbledore–Would you consider running for President?
ninetyninepct says
A lot of people have been acquiring more ammunition. Our Governments deliberately refuse to protect us so we are being forced to protect ourselves. The time is coming and Allah ain’t going to like it.
AnneM says
And remember that Americans are ARMED to the teeth.
Jay Boo says
No Muslim actually believe in Islam’s deity.
Islam is all about stealing booty and Penis worship narcissistic vanity.
Vanity and sex craving causes Muslims to behave like evil clowns.
Muslim women flaunt their alleged virginity as if promoting themselves like a nine year old virgin at a Muslim sex slave auction seeking the highest bid for their master. They actually take pride in tying that stupid ass hijab rag on their head like they are wearing a nubile girls first sanitary cloth on their head with pride for public display. Islam is gross.
Muslim men are even worse as we all know.
AnneM says
Remember that the real god of Islam is the same god that was refered to by a Bible passage that “he was a liar, a thief, and a murderer from the begining.”
mortimer says
Safety concerns in wobbly old buildings are valid, but may be an excuse. Only a structural engineer would know.
Westman says
Islam, the only religion running a mafia protection racket. “We make an offer you cannot refuse, Aloah Snackbar!”
Jay Boo says
I guess that argument has merit.
Muslims do know a lot about detonation and in wobbly old buildings.
ChristianMom says
I pray the restoration is completed soon and next year access is restored for the Christians. It doesn’t seem nefarious since the closed it to the public Sept of 2015 and stating then it would take a yr to complete the work. http://www.sumela.com/listingview.php?listingID=10
ken brown says
And what is the UN doing about it? Freedom of religion is supposed to be guaranteed.
Carolyne says
I wouldn’t want to be the one to clean that plane after they disembarked.
Lynn in Florida says
I was struck by the similarities between the restrictions on the Christian churches imposed by the institution of the dhimma and the restrictions the Iowa Civil Rights Commission seeks to impose on Christian churches in Iowa. The Iowa Civil Rights Commission has told the churches they cannot preach about the Biblical prohibitions on homosexuality even inside their churches if the church service is open to the public (no conversions). If the churches violate these restrictions they may lose their tax exempt status and have to pay taxes (the jizya.)
gravenimage says
Turkey bans Orthodox Christian Liturgy in historic monastery
……………………………
And “modern” “moderate” Turkey continues to oppress the “filthy Infidel”.
David says
When is the civilised world going to just pull the chain and flush all this fanatical myslim FILTH right down into the vast SEWER of forgotten and outmoded oppressive ideas from our ancient, primitive and barbaric past? That’s where all of this muslim psycopathic krap belongs!
Every other major religious faction has been able to do this. They have all made the transition from savage, primitive barbarism into this, our 21st century.
Oh! Thats right. Islam is NOT REALLY A RELIGION AT ALL! But instead a political philosophy nearly identical with 1940’s Nazism !
Well! That sure explains a lot. ?