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PETITION CAMPAIGN TO SAVE HISTORIC SYRIAC ORTHODOX MONASTERY IN MARDIN
hetq
14:53, July 11, 2012
Some 300 writers, academics and artists in have joined a petition
campaign to protest a verdict by the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals
to nationalize the estates of the Mor Gabriel Monastery (Mardin),
the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world, dating
back to 397 AD.
Established in 397 A.D., the Mor Gabriel Monastery bears exceptional
significance for Syriacs, as it stands on par with Muslims' "Al Aqsa
Mosque" for the Syriac community, trains half of all their clergy
and has enabled the survival of the Syriac language, according to
Tuma Ozdemir, the head of the Mesopotamia Culture Association.
Prof. Cengiz Aktar, Tuma Ozdemir and Tuma Celik, the owner of the
Mardin-based Syriac journal Sabro, came together in Istanbul's
Cezayir Meeting Hall to expound on the petition campaign entitled
"Turkey is the Syriacs' Homeland, and the Mor Gabriel Monastery is
not an Occupier."
The Oriental Orthodox communion comprises six churches: Coptic
Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church or Indian Orthodox Church and Armenian
Apostolic churches.These churches, while being in communion with one
another, are hierarchically independent.
Around 20,000 Syriacs are currently living in Turkey. 15,000 of them
reside in Istanbul, while the rest reside in Mardin and its vicinity.
hetq
14:53, July 11, 2012
Some 300 writers, academics and artists in have joined a petition
campaign to protest a verdict by the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals
to nationalize the estates of the Mor Gabriel Monastery (Mardin),
the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world, dating
back to 397 AD.
Established in 397 A.D., the Mor Gabriel Monastery bears exceptional
significance for Syriacs, as it stands on par with Muslims' "Al Aqsa
Mosque" for the Syriac community, trains half of all their clergy
and has enabled the survival of the Syriac language, according to
Tuma Ozdemir, the head of the Mesopotamia Culture Association.
Prof. Cengiz Aktar, Tuma Ozdemir and Tuma Celik, the owner of the
Mardin-based Syriac journal Sabro, came together in Istanbul's
Cezayir Meeting Hall to expound on the petition campaign entitled
"Turkey is the Syriacs' Homeland, and the Mor Gabriel Monastery is
not an Occupier."
The Oriental Orthodox communion comprises six churches: Coptic
Orthodox, Ethiopian Orthodox, Eritrean Orthodox, Syriac Orthodox,
Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church or Indian Orthodox Church and Armenian
Apostolic churches.These churches, while being in communion with one
another, are hierarchically independent.
Around 20,000 Syriacs are currently living in Turkey. 15,000 of them
reside in Istanbul, while the rest reside in Mardin and its vicinity.