Muslim worshippers conduct night prayers in a former Greek Orthodox Byzantine church which formally opened as a mosque, in Istanbul, Turkey, on Monday. ‘The Turkish authorities’ determination to start the operation of the monastery of Chora as a Muslim mosque constitutes a provocation for the worldwide group because it distorts and impacts its character as a UNESCO World Heritage Website belonging to humanity,’ the Greek Overseas Ministry stated in an announcement. [EMRAH GUREL/AP]
The Archons of the Ecumenical Patriarchate word with dismay and strongly condemn Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s determination to proceed with plans to transform the Monastery of Chora to a mosque.
“That is yet one more contemptuous act in opposition to spiritual freedom perpetrated by the federal government of Turkey,” the Archons stated in an announcement on Wednesday.
“This ill-advised determination as soon as once more makes a mockery of the Turkish authorities’s dedication to non secular tolerance and non secular freedom,” it’s famous within the assertion.
It’s also underlined that Hagia Sophia and the Chora Church have for hundreds of years been a supply of inspiration and enlightenment not just for hundreds of thousands of Orthodox Christians, however for individuals of different religion traditions everywhere in the world.
“The Turkish authorities’s appropriation of each because the property of 1 religion group not solely constitutes yet one more signal of that authorities’s contempt for Turkey’s wealthy Orthodox Christian heritage, however additional imperils the spiritual freedom of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the remaining Christians of that land.”
Archons “urgently name upon worldwide organizations and governments of the world which are dedicated to non secular freedom to compel the Turkish authorities to reverse this determination in addition to the conversion of Hagia Sophia to a mosque, and to reestablish each with a standing that respects their whole historical past, together with their many centuries as facilities of Christian prayer and worship.”
