Neo-Ottoman Turkey assails Greek Orthodox Christian churches unable to understand their substance

 In the 16th century, the Ottomans converted Christian temples into mosques. Five centuries later, as a neo-sultan, Erdogan issued decrees, reviving the intolerance and religious fanaticism of Ottomanism. He converts monumental Greek Christian temples located in Constantinople (Istanbul) -world cultural heritage monuments-into mosques, such as the Byzantine Cathedral of Hagia Sophia and the Byzantine Catholic Church of the Savior in the Monastery of Chora. It tries to uproot the thousands of years character of Christianity and Hellenism from  Constantinople ( Istanbul ). What insolence and foolishness for a mortal to believe that he can accomplish such a task! Not only because History has been recorded but because the ontology of the monuments is a testimony of Hellenism by itself.

 

 

The learned Byzantine  Theodoros Metochitis was the one who designed and sponsored the entire iconographic program of the church of Savior in the Monastery of Chora. The iconographic illustrations describe the presence of the Savior as "Jesus Christ the Chora of the Living" and the Virgin Mary as "The Chora of the Achoreton ( The God)". These inscriptions cannot be understood without prior knowledge of the theological background that is behind this inscription. The term chora originates in Plato’s Timaeus and means "reception". Next to the mosaics and to the frescoes, the Byzantine learned benefactor represents with Greek inscriptions the insurmountable power of the Greek language, that is the only language with the expressive capacity to conceive and express the metaphysical meaning of Christianity: the Virgin Mary is the Chora ( She who receives) the Achoreton ( The God). And Jesus became the Chora (Realm) of the Living.

 Erdogan also is not aware that an orthodox Christian church symbolizes the universe. Every architectural part of the church witnesses to the Christian doctrine. Therefore, the decrees of the neo-sultan are powerless to affect in the slightest the ontology of the Greek Orthodox Christian church. In its cross-dome architectural design,  the faithful who enter the church of the Savior of the Monastery of Chora will worship the Cross that symbolizes the Passion of Jesus. Under its dome, they will worship the God Almighty who unites with the faithful on earth. Kneeling to the floor of the temple they will partake to His fold on earth. By looking at the apse of the Holy Preparation ( Prothesis) they will see the Cave of the Nativity of the Lord. And the iconographic program of the church will testify to the miracle of Virgin Mary as the Chora ( She who receives) the Achoreton ( The God). And Jesus Christ, as the " the Realm ( Chora)  of the Living.

A few weeks ago at the Hagia Sophia, and this week at the Monastery of Chora, let the new sultan and his faithful pray to Allah in these holy places for Hellenism and Christianity. The Lord of the temple will look at them and repeat: "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they are doing." Ottomanism has never understood Hellenism. Although Ottomanism coexisted with Hellenism for centuries was never able to be influenced by Hellenism, as it was the case for other peoples who understood the value of Hellenism and embedded it in their identities, and then continued their historical process by incorporating the foundational principles of liberalism.

By appropriating Hellenism the West made Hellenism part of its existence, and therefore it bears the responsibility to protect the monuments of western world heritage from any potential risk of their destruction. The danger is real that the neo-sultan may begin to put a plaster on the surfaces of these spiritual treasures of humanity. His ancestors did so, and now Erdogan revives sixteenth-century practices. An insolent mortal destroys around him until his inescapable fall.

The ancient Greek theater - Erdogan speaks ironically for it- poses the question in Sophocles' "Antigone" whether an arrogant ruler can issue decrees for matters that set upon the divine and attempt to subjugate a divine domain by assailing to a sphere that surpasses his power.  In ancient Greek thought, the deity who confuses the mind of the insolent ruler is called "Blind", and when blindness possesses the mortal, while he thinks he sees, in essence, makes one mistake after another in the darkness of his mind. Erdogan assails to the divine like a new Creon blinded by his arrogance and the delusion of his power: "I will kill her ( his niece Antigone) even if she prays to the god Zeus who protects the kinship". Eventually, by sentencing to death  Antigone, because she offered burial honors to her dead brother, Creon destroys himself and everything he loves and owns, and then he collapses. In this insurmountable Sophoclean tragedy, the Greeks assure that the divine order should not be offended and that if a man fails to realize the limits of hubris and transgresses to it, his fall is inevitable.

Arrogance ( hubris)  gives birth to the tyrant.

It makes him think irrationally, 

to pursue  vain, useless, and  disadvantageous goals

It ascends him,  gives him  power and ephemeral glory

But suddenly and unexpectedly he knocks him down from his fragile pedestal.

By forgetting that they are mortals,

they fight with words and deeds against  Justice  

and they will get a sad end.

The minds of the outlaws, who  have no respect for anything,

and they assail to the sacred and holy,  they follow the path of their own destruction.

(Sophocles' Oedipus the King).

* Polyvia Parara is a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of Maryland College Park, USA.

pparara@umd.edu

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