Tag: Turkey
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Liturgy and the Limits of Minority Rights
by Christopher Sheklian | български | ქართული | ελληνικά | Română | Русский | Српски “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 […]
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The Meaning of Hagia Sophia: A Traveler’s Perspective
by Elizabeth Scott Tervo | Ελληνικά 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 […]
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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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The Armenian Patriarchate and the Sanasaryan Han
by Christopher Sheklian 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 […]
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The Systematic Persecution of Religious Minorities in Turkey
by the Hon. B. Theodore Bozonelis | ελληνικά | ру́сский 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 […]