Cyprus-Forum.com

[Simon]

Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival

By Jonathan Head
BBC News, Istanbul

This week members of the Greek Orthodox Church celebrated one of the most important dates in their calendar, the Feast of Epiphany, with young men competing to retrieve crosses thrown by priests into rivers and seas around the world.

The most important ceremony takes place in Turkey's biggest city, Istanbul, where the spiritual head of the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Bartholomew, throws a cross into the Golden Horn.

The Church here traces its origins back through a continuous line of patriarchs to the 4th Century.

But most of the Greeks watching the ceremony are overseas visitors. Official tolerance of minorities in Turkey has improved over the past decade, but the local Greek community has dwindled to fewer than 3,000, and there are now real fears for its survival.

Tucked away in the streets behind Kadikoy harbour in Istanbul is a magnificent 140-year-old building. Its stately windows and grand classical portico stand in contrast to the drab, concrete townhouses that surround it. This is one of 22 schools in the city built to serve the Greek community.

But today, the Kadikoy Greek Primary School's intake has fallen to just one pupil, 10-year-old Valendi Mihailidis. His are the only footsteps heard after the bell rings for classes, where he gets personal tuition from a Greek and a Turkish teacher.

"It's a very sad situation," says Yorgo Istefanopulos, a Turkish-Greek professor who has volunteered to manage the school. "When I was a pupil here in the 1960s there were six classes, all full. It was swarming with pupils."

He took me to the assembly hall where children used to perform. Today dusty chairs are piled in one corner. The dining room downstairs has not been used in years. And when Valendi wants to play football in the playground, he has to ask the school caretaker to join him.

Valendi says he is happy, but wishes there were other children to play with. When he leaves, the school will probably close.

Horrific violence
Greeks have lived in the territory of modern-day Turkey for more than 3,000 years. Up to the last years of the Ottoman Empire, they still numbered nearly two million, dominating much of the commerce.


Recruiting priests from Turkey's shrinking Greek community is difficult
But after the violent birth of the Turkish republic in 1923, most of those living along the Aegean and Mediterranean coasts were expelled in a matter of days through an agreed population exchange with Greece.

The sizeable community in Istanbul, though, was exempted, and until the mid-1950s there were still nearly 70,000. But nationalist emotions stirred up by the crisis in Cyprus were directed against the Greeks in one night of horrific violence in September 1955, in which mobs attacked shops and churches, raping Greek women and forcibly circumcising priests. Hostility towards the Turkish Greeks continued for many years, forcing thousands to leave Istanbul.

Another difficulty for the community has been the official regulations, which have resulted in thousands of buildings once belonging to Greeks or Greek foundations being confiscated by the state.

This has been a particular challenge for the Church, because the Turkish state does not recognise Patriarch Bartholomew as head of the world's Orthodox Christians.

Without any legal status, he has been barred from managing the many churches and other properties that once belonged to the Church. Nor has he been able to train new priests - the seminary that once did so remains shut down, and finding recruits in the shrinking Greek community is hard.

That situation is now beginning to improve, as the Turkish government relaxes its approach towards ethnic and religious minorities in its quest to meet the human rights standards required for European Union membership.

In one important symbolic case, the Turkish courts have handed back an old orphanage, one of the world's largest wooden buildings, to the Orthodox Patriarchate. Patriarch Bartholomew, a committed environmentalist, hopes to restore the badly decayed building, and turn it into an environmental research centre.

"This case is a revolution," says the patriarch's lawyer Cem Sofuoglu. "It gives the Church de facto recognition by the government for the first time. I could not imagine this result even five years ago."

'Land of opportunity'
These days an increasingly prosperous and cosmopolitan Istanbul is starting to rediscover its rich Greek heritage, unencumbered by the defensive nationalism of the past.

There are performances of Greek music and exhibitions showcasing the many works of Greek architects still left in the city. The much-improved diplomatic relations with Greece these days also help.

The official regulation of minority foundations was also eased three years ago, and for the first time a member of a minority group sits on the state body responsible for regulating them. Laki Vingas, an ebullient Greek entrepreneur, hopes to use this position to revive the community.

"We are too small, that's a reality", he says. "We need to restructure these foundations, which date back to the Ottoman period, when we were far larger.

"The minorities want to maintain their heritage. They are proud of their culture. But they also want to be productive, to participate in the life of this country. They don't want to be preserved as an antique, as a piece of history."

But the biggest challenge remains the size of the community. Most of the remaining Greeks are older. There are now only 240 pupils to fill the 22 schools.

Unlike the much larger Armenian community, which is being reinforced by recent migrants from Armenia, only a small number of Greeks have moved back to Istanbul, and as foreign citizens they are not allowed to send their children to the local Greek schools.

"Our only hope is that Turkey joins the European Union," says Yorgo Istefanopulos. "Then, with the crisis in Greece and the borders opened, I hope Turkey will be seen as a land of opportunity, not just for Greeks who originated here, but all Greeks."

That is a pretty forlorn hope. Turkey's EU candidacy has stalled, mostly over Cyprus, and membership - if it ever happens - is certainly many years away.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12133163


I found this quite interesting. We need to start returning to Constantinople!

[AEKTZIS]

The difference with the September 1955 Pogrom and Cyprus' issue is that we did not retaliate with a "PEACE OPERATION" to save the Greeks of Konstantinoupoli in '55.

I saw the report, I also saw the video.....sad and emotional stuff. I am glad the BBC did this special report.

[Get Real!]

Greek community in Turkey fears for its survival

I for one am getting really sick and tired of all these piss-pot communities (minorities) all over the world causing massive problems in their respective countries of residence.

They are nothing but a national nuisance and I’d like to see the day when the world unites behind my idea of “Global Repatriation” to eliminate the myriads of problems stemming from all these half-baked trouble-making nincompoops!

There should be no such thing as a “Greek community in Turkey” any more than a “Turkish community in Greece”, or a “Pakistani community in Papua New Guinea”!

It’s ridiculous! Either embrace a country 100% or GET THE BLOODY HELL OUT OF THERE!

[Klik]

I'd agree 100% on that if this was an easy case. Those people have been living there for 1000s of years. It's like Kormakitis in Cyprus but at a larger extent. Nothing like immigrants of London or Berlin or Paris. The new rulers were imposed on the population, not vice versa.

[AEKTZIS]

Get Real, I disagree. What do you mean, "Either embrace a country 100% or GET THE BLOODY HELL OUT OF THERE!"???

The Turks in Greece are MUSLIM...there is no way they will fully embrace an Orthodox country as their own, there are clear cultural divides. They speak Turkish, they are Muslim....I as a Greek would never expect them to fully assimilate into the Greek population as Christians.

Likewise, the Greeks in Turkey....Greeks have been in the city for millenia. For the Greeks that live their, it is THEIR HOME, their ancestral home. Constantinople has always been the most sacred and important city to the Greeks (no offence intended at all if you are a Turk, this is the honest truth), so for them to "Get the hell out of there" would be an impossible concept to them. They are Christian, there is a very important cultural significance of the Greeks in the city as everyone knows, and they are a part of this history. SO IF THIS IS A "PISS-POT COMMUNITY" which has its roots in the city for over 1000 years, I DONT KNOW WHAT TO SAY..... and if Turkey fails to treat this group of people who OWN TURKISH CITIZENSHIP AND ARE OBLIGED TO PROTECTION FROM THEIR GOVERNMENT WHICH CLAIMS TO BE SECULAR AND MODERN, then Turkey is simply another backwards Middle Eastern country.

And for your information, the Greek community in Turkey is not "causing massive problems in their respective country of residence"...in fact if you knew the situation well, they are NOT making any straining demands on society, in fact they fear for their existence. I would say the Muslim community of Thrace numbering 150,000 is a much bigger strain on Greece than 3,000 Greeks are a strain to Turkey. The Muslims of Thrace want a breakaway nation, the Greeks in Istanbul want ownership of churches....You tell me how they are causing a problem...

[Gasman]

These were obviously not fearing for their survival:
http://www.todayszaman.com/news-231789-christians-take-a-dive-to-celebrate-epiphany-in-istanbul.html



Christians take a dive to celebrate Epiphany in İstanbul

Epiphany was celebrated in the Yeşilköy Marina by Greek Orthodox Christians.
Members of the Greek Orthodox community in İstanbul as well as pilgrims from Greece yesterday braved cold waters to retrieve a wooden cross thrown into the sea by Metropolitan Athanasios Papas as part of the Feast of the Epiphany.

Epiphany, the climax of the Advent/Christmas season and the 12 days of Christmas, which are usually counted from the evening of Dec. 25 until the morning of Jan. 6, which is the 12th day, was also celebrated in the Yeşilköy Marina. As Greek Orthodox Christians first attended a religious ceremony in a church in Yeşilköy led by Metropolitan Derkon Konstantin, they later went to the marina to conclude the ceremony by retrieving a cross from the sea near Yeşilköy.

Five young Christian men plunged into the sea near Yeşilköy to retrieve the cross thrown by Metropolitan Konstantin after prayers. Erkan Bedro became the champion the fourth time in a row after retrieving the cross. Retrieving the cross from the water is an old tradition in the Greek Orthodox Church and is thought to be good luck.

Christians who gathered around Metropolitan Konstantin tried to kiss the cross as he held it. Bakırköy Mayor Ateş Ünal Erzen also attended the ceremony, which took place under strict security measures.

Meanwhile, Armenians celebrated Christmas on Jan. 6. Theophany, or Epiphany, means “revelation of God,” which is the central theme of the Christmas season in the Armenian Church. During the Armenian Christmas season, the major events that are celebrated are the Nativity of Christ in Bethlehem and his baptism in the River Jordan. The day of this major feast in the Armenian Church is Jan. 6. A ceremony known as the Blessing of Water is also conducted in Armenian churches to commemorate Christ’s baptism.

It is frequently asked why Armenians do not celebrate Christmas on Dec. 25 like many other Christians. As the exact date of Christ’s birth has not been historically established, many Christian churches celebrated Christ’s birth on January 6 until the fourth century. According to Roman Catholic sources, the date was later changed from Jan. 6 to Dec. 25 in order to override a pagan feast dedicated to the birth of the sun, which was celebrated on Dec. 25. However, the Armenian Church was not affected by this change.

[AEKTZIS]

Gasman, what a ridiculous comment. We celebrate the epiphany as a religious custom....The fears for the survival of Greeks in Constantinople is a long-term issue and it is a serious one. Don't trivialise such an issue with arrogant and igorant comments like that. I am glad those at the BBC have more sense than you.

[Get Real!]

The fears for the survival of Greeks in Constantinople is a long-term issue and it is a serious one. Don't trivialise such an issue with arrogant and igorant comments like that. I am glad those at the BBC have more sense than you.

Yeah, so is this…

Greece’s Human Rights Portfolio

http://www.cyprus-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=24484

[AEKTZIS]

ΓΙΑΤΙ ΕΧΕΙΣ ΤΟΣΟ ΜΕΓAΛΟ ΜΙΣΟΣ ΓΙΑ ΤΗΝ ΕΛΛΑΔΑ?

You completely dodged my response to your stupid comment regarding the situation which you dismissed as "THEY SHOUD GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE"....

They have been in Constantinople longer than any Turks have.....It is their ancestral home, they belong there...

Then you go on about Cyprus and some bullshit human rights portfolio of hate you have compiled which has nothing to do with the issue we are discussing.

Greeks in Constantinople are facing a problem, OH FUCK THEM......LET'S MENTION SOME RANDOM HATRED-FUELLED CRAP AGAINST GREECE...

[Simon]

I'd agree 100% on that if this was an easy case. Those people have been living there for 1000s of years. It's like Kormakitis in Cyprus but at a larger extent. Nothing like immigrants of London or Berlin or Paris. The new rulers were imposed on the population, not vice versa.

Precisely Klik.