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A TALE OF TWO MONASTERIES
The National Interest Online
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/tale-two-monasteries-4052
Sept 10 2010
On August 15 this year, a remarkable event took place at Sumela
monastery in northeastern Turkey in the beautiful wooded valleys that
the Greeks call the Pontus. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
celebrated the first service in the ruined monastery since 1923,
the year when the Pontic Greeks were deported from their homeland.
It took many years of quiet diplomacy by church officials,
non-governmental activists, mayors and-an important group in this
rapprochement-musicians, for Greeks and Turks to bridge their
differences sufficiently to let the Sumela service take place. An
American photographer of Pontic Greek origin, Eleftherios ("Ted")
Kostans was in the church and wrote me his impressions:
There were a couple of stand-out moments I thoroughly enjoyed. One
being the Patriarch's speeches in Greek and Turkish. He was both
eloquent and considerate of all peoples, in a way that made reminded
us, we are all human first. The second wonderful moment was quite
thrilling for me as Greek and as a Pontian. When the Patriarch walked
through the crowed inside the Sumela walls carrying his staff I was
just a few steps away and could see him gazing the walls. The smell
of frescoes and priests singing suddenly came together for me. Silence
hit the room for a moment and suddenly the crowed yelled, "Axios!
Axios! Axios!" [the Greek word for 'Worthy']......It came from all
directions as the crowed closed in around the Patriarch....Wow! For me,
that was the climactic moment. Not just for the day. But symbolically,
it represented the return to Pontus and announced officially that
yes we are Pontians and this is our homeland.
Only a year before I was with Eleftherios outside the monastery walls
on August 15, the Feast of the Virgin Day, when it all went badly
wrong and a Turkish museum curator broke up what she declared to be
an unauthorized service.
This year's breakthrough was clearly authorized at the top, another
move in the tentative "Christian opening" made by the governing AK
Party, as it challenges some of the desiccated doctrines of the
Turkish state. Plenty of powerful nationalist forces vehemently
opposed the service as an invitation to "Christian fifth columnists"
to infiltrate a Turkish state musuem. But now a precedent has been set,
hopefully the Sumela liturgy will become an annual event.
None of this can be said a parallel service planned for September 19:
the first liturgy for more than 90 years in the 10th century Armenian
church of Akhtamar on Lake Van. The Armenian patriarch of Istanbul is
due to officiate in what would again be a historic event-Armenians'
return to a place that from which they were bloodily driven out in
1915. Thousands of Armenians are due to visit, with many of them
staying in ordinary Turkish homes.
Unfortunately, unlike Sumela, the Akhtamar service is threatening to
turn into a disaster. Armenian officials and clergy are saying they
will not come because the Turkish government has not carried through on
its promise to reinstall a cross on the monastery dome. The government,
currently locked in a fight over the September 12 constitutional
referendum, is doing nothing to correct this.
I understand the concerns of some Armenians who won't go to Akhatmar.
They want to see rapprochement with Turkey, but they believe that the
church service is a distraction from the political business that the
Turkish government flunked when it failed to press ahead with ratifying
the Protocols on normalizing relations, signed last year in Zurich.
But some Armenians are going much further, denouncing the whole
event and calling for a boycott. One commentator called the liturgy a
"scandalous show" and Armenians who are going there "tools of Turkish
propaganda." These people, who oppose any incremental changes with
Turkey and demand nothing less than a full Turkish government apology
for committing Genocide in 1915 are in a curious way the allies
of the Turkish nationalists who oppose rapprochement for opposite
reasons. If the Akhtamar service is a failure, it will be a blow
against those liberal Turks, such as the governor of Van province
and in the presidential administration, who are still pushing for
normalization with Armenia.
I am certain of two things: There will eventually be a breakthrough
in Armenian-Turkish relations. And when it happens, both Armenians
and Turks will say things about the other and about the past that
they are not saying now. The issue is all in the timing and how to
build enough mutual trust to stiffen the resolve of the leaders who
will do the final deal.
(photo of Akhtamar Monastery by Ioiez Deniel)
From: A. Papazian
The National Interest Online
http://nationalinterest.org/commentary/tale-two-monasteries-4052
Sept 10 2010
On August 15 this year, a remarkable event took place at Sumela
monastery in northeastern Turkey in the beautiful wooded valleys that
the Greeks call the Pontus. The Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople
celebrated the first service in the ruined monastery since 1923,
the year when the Pontic Greeks were deported from their homeland.
It took many years of quiet diplomacy by church officials,
non-governmental activists, mayors and-an important group in this
rapprochement-musicians, for Greeks and Turks to bridge their
differences sufficiently to let the Sumela service take place. An
American photographer of Pontic Greek origin, Eleftherios ("Ted")
Kostans was in the church and wrote me his impressions:
There were a couple of stand-out moments I thoroughly enjoyed. One
being the Patriarch's speeches in Greek and Turkish. He was both
eloquent and considerate of all peoples, in a way that made reminded
us, we are all human first. The second wonderful moment was quite
thrilling for me as Greek and as a Pontian. When the Patriarch walked
through the crowed inside the Sumela walls carrying his staff I was
just a few steps away and could see him gazing the walls. The smell
of frescoes and priests singing suddenly came together for me. Silence
hit the room for a moment and suddenly the crowed yelled, "Axios!
Axios! Axios!" [the Greek word for 'Worthy']......It came from all
directions as the crowed closed in around the Patriarch....Wow! For me,
that was the climactic moment. Not just for the day. But symbolically,
it represented the return to Pontus and announced officially that
yes we are Pontians and this is our homeland.
Only a year before I was with Eleftherios outside the monastery walls
on August 15, the Feast of the Virgin Day, when it all went badly
wrong and a Turkish museum curator broke up what she declared to be
an unauthorized service.
This year's breakthrough was clearly authorized at the top, another
move in the tentative "Christian opening" made by the governing AK
Party, as it challenges some of the desiccated doctrines of the
Turkish state. Plenty of powerful nationalist forces vehemently
opposed the service as an invitation to "Christian fifth columnists"
to infiltrate a Turkish state musuem. But now a precedent has been set,
hopefully the Sumela liturgy will become an annual event.
None of this can be said a parallel service planned for September 19:
the first liturgy for more than 90 years in the 10th century Armenian
church of Akhtamar on Lake Van. The Armenian patriarch of Istanbul is
due to officiate in what would again be a historic event-Armenians'
return to a place that from which they were bloodily driven out in
1915. Thousands of Armenians are due to visit, with many of them
staying in ordinary Turkish homes.
Unfortunately, unlike Sumela, the Akhtamar service is threatening to
turn into a disaster. Armenian officials and clergy are saying they
will not come because the Turkish government has not carried through on
its promise to reinstall a cross on the monastery dome. The government,
currently locked in a fight over the September 12 constitutional
referendum, is doing nothing to correct this.
I understand the concerns of some Armenians who won't go to Akhatmar.
They want to see rapprochement with Turkey, but they believe that the
church service is a distraction from the political business that the
Turkish government flunked when it failed to press ahead with ratifying
the Protocols on normalizing relations, signed last year in Zurich.
But some Armenians are going much further, denouncing the whole
event and calling for a boycott. One commentator called the liturgy a
"scandalous show" and Armenians who are going there "tools of Turkish
propaganda." These people, who oppose any incremental changes with
Turkey and demand nothing less than a full Turkish government apology
for committing Genocide in 1915 are in a curious way the allies
of the Turkish nationalists who oppose rapprochement for opposite
reasons. If the Akhtamar service is a failure, it will be a blow
against those liberal Turks, such as the governor of Van province
and in the presidential administration, who are still pushing for
normalization with Armenia.
I am certain of two things: There will eventually be a breakthrough
in Armenian-Turkish relations. And when it happens, both Armenians
and Turks will say things about the other and about the past that
they are not saying now. The issue is all in the timing and how to
build enough mutual trust to stiffen the resolve of the leaders who
will do the final deal.
(photo of Akhtamar Monastery by Ioiez Deniel)
From: A. Papazian