The logic of the “right of conquest”, on which he relied so much the re-conversion of Hagia Sophia into an Islamic mosque in July 2020 as well as the recent one conversion of the Monastery of Chora, a beacon of cultural heritage, open to all people, from a museum to a mosque, it is essentially a retreat of human civilization into medieval practices. This was pointed out yesterday by the Holy Archdiocese of America and the Archbishop Elpidophoros for the for the subject in question.
As emphasized in the relevant announcement, the prayer at the “conquered monuments”, which is performed today, in the 21st century, by the Muslim religious minister brandishing a sword, brings back the element of violence and connects it to religious sentiment, with all that this entails. It is, it is underlined, a decision of the Turkish government, which is a contradiction in the agreement of mutual respect and understanding between people of all religions. A decision that serves ephemeral political interests causing long-term damage.
All people of faith are called upon to take a shared responsibility to avoid the unnecessary pain and division caused by such decisions, as seeing the spiritual and cultural treasures of the Monastery of Chora, known for its stunning Byzantine mosaics and frescoes , to be hidden, is a huge loss not only for our Orthodox brothers, but also for all believers who discover beauty and meaning in her sacred art, it is characteristically mentioned.
The Holy Archdiocese of America and Archbishop Elpidophoros call on the Turkish government to reconsider the decision to convert the Monastery of Chora into a mosque, recognizing the gravity of this move and its consequences, especially since the world center of Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical Patriarchate, is in Istanbul and Turkey, in a country where many of its citizens belong to different religions and denominations.
They also call on the US government to deal with the whole matter, firstly because it violates the long-recognized principles of the absolute separation of Church and State and secondly because the relevant decisions of the Turkish government may undermine human rights and human freedoms through the instrumentalization of religion.
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