The Joint Justice Initiative – made up of the Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian communities – condemns President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s latest attempt at the desecration of one of the most important ancient Christian sites in present-day Turkey and calls on the Australian Government to join in our condemnation.
Turkey’s autocratic leader, who has repeatedly threatened to violate Hagia Sophia’s (Church of Holy Wisdom) status as a UNESCO World Heritage Site and convert the church – which is now a museum – into a mosque, has defended Friday’s “celebrations” of the day that marked the fall of Constantinople. As part of these “celebrations”, an official from Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet) recited the Quran’s Conquest Surah (chapter) inside the Hagia Sophia.
The iconic church, which was built in the 6th century by the Byzantine Emperor Justinian, historically served as the main seat of the Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Churches. Sultan Mehmet converted it into a mosque when Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire, before Turkey’s first president, Kemal Ataturk secularised the site and opened it as a museum. In 1985, UNESCO designated the Hagia Sophia as a World Heritage Site.
Holding a muslim prayer service inside the Hagia Sophia is the latest in ongoing attempts by Turkish authorities to appropriate and desecrate Christian properties occupied over centuries, including those belonging to our Armenian, Assyrian and Greek ancestors. Most of the congregations of these ancient Christian sites were exterminated or forcibly deported during the genocide of the indigenous Christian population of the Ottoman Empire in the course of World War I and soon after.
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President Erdogan’s comments of encouragement of this needlessly provocative act concerns our communities, especially as they are not comments made in isolation. Earlier this year, he spoke of “implement(ing) plans” to “change Hagia Sophia’s name from museum to mosque”.
Further inflaming concerns with our surviving but fast dwindling communities in Turkey, President Erdogan referred to “leftovers of the sword” in a recent speech. This is a derogatory term commonly used in Turkey in referring to the survivors of the 1915 Genocides that killed 1.5 million Armenians, as well as over 1 million Assyrians and Greeks.
The deteriorating landscape for religious and minority freedom, democracy and human rights in Turkey demands that nations who uphold such values, such as Australia, speak up and act.
The deliberate desecration, appropriation, and ultimately destruction of the ancient Christian civilisations of the Near East, being the very birthplace and centres of ancient Christianity, is an affront to all humanity irrespective of religious beliefs.
The Armenian-Australian, Assyrian-Australian and Greek-Australian communities, through the Joint Justice Initiative, call on the Australian Government to condemn Turkey’s latest and egregious such transgression, to ensure that appropriate international efforts are made to preserve what remains of the ancient Christian sites and civilisation in present-day Turkey including the freedom of safe and fearless worship in Turkey.
Armenian National Committee of Australia