Sometimes the absurdities are too much when it comes to all of the talk of 'occupied land', particularly when the talk involves occupied land in the Middle East. These are all lands that have been inhabited for millennia, changing hands time and time again as different groups vied for dominance over their neighbors lands and peoples. This is as true for the present city of Istanbul in Turkey as it is for anywhere else although you certainly wouldn't know it to hear Ali Ebaş, President of the Turkish Directorate of Religious Affairs, talk.
Here, from the pulpit of Hagia Sophia, which was entrusted to us by Mehmed the Conqueror, the protector of the oppressed, I address all humanity and invite all humanity to stand by the side of the oppressed agains the occupiers.
— Prof. Dr. Ali Erbaş (@DIBAliErbas) October 20, 2023
O oppressors, do not forget; take a lesson from… pic.twitter.com/o0Y0dzj7Uz
Dr. Erbaş says in the video:
After the conquest of Istanbul, Mehmed the Conqueror treated the priests, women, innocents, the elderly... and unarmed people who gathered here in the Hagia Sophia and were waiting in fear for their fate, with great mercy and compassion...prepared the ground for everyone to live their beliefs in the greatest freedom, protected all their rights, gave them the right to live their religion, and guaranteed their property, possessions, and all their belongings. This exemplifies the principles of justice and mercy upheld by Islam and Muslims. Let the world hear this! Brothers and sisters, here from the pulpit of Hagia Sophia, which was entrusted to us by Mehmed the Conqueror, the protector of the oppressed address all humanity and invite all humanity to stand by the side of the oppressed against the oppressors and occupiers.
The mercy and justice of Mehmed the conqueror would have been news to many of the Orthodox Christians who were slaughtered in the streets of Constantinople in 1453, certainly. Contemporary authors note that the last Christian monarch of Byzantium, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was beheaded by the Turking invaders, had his head paraded through the streets of the conquered city to instill fear in anyone with thoughts of fighting back against the Ottoman occupation, and then the head was stuffed and sent as a gift to the Sultan of Egypt along with 20 captured women and 40 captured men. The rest of the population was reportedly either sold into slavery or put to the sword if they were too old, young, or infirm for sale.
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The greatest irony here, though, is the specific location of the speech. The Hagia Sophia was built by order of Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I and inaugurated as a Catholic Church in the year 537. After the 1453 conquest of Constantinople the Muslim occupiers of the land wasted no time in converting one of the greatest houses of worships in Christendom into a mosque, over the years constructing the 4 minarets that now surround it. So for someone who calls himself a 'Muslim religious scholar' to decry occupation of anywhere from the pulpit of the occupied Hagia Sophia is either ignorant or silly... as many were quick to remind him.
Ah Mehmed the Conqueror, the true protecter of the oppressed!
— Daily Roman Updates (@UpdatingOnRome) October 21, 2023
The Hagia Sophia that was built as a Christian cathedral by the Byzantine Empire that Ottomans seized in bloody conquest in 1453. Oh and where are all the Pontic Greeks?
— David Montgomery (@dpmont0407) October 21, 2023
How did Mehmed come to possess the church in the first place? Did he build it himself?
— Will, Burgumaniac (@spudhawg) October 21, 2023
I support making Istanbul Constantinople again.
— Couldn't Be Papa P (@CouldntBePapaP) October 21, 2023
And the Hagia Sophia an orthodox church.
You're literally an occupier in Constantinople right now.
— Calamity Jen (@realCalamityJen) October 21, 2023
It was stolen from the Patriarch of Constantinople. And you are only there because of a reversal of the wise decision of Ataturk to preserve it in the name of all peoples of Istanbul/Constantinople.
— Francis Hoar (@Francis_Hoar) October 21, 2023
This in reference to Mustafa Atatürk, first President of Turkey, who forbade the use of Hagia Sophia as a mosque in 1935 and turned it into a 'museum and world historical site'. This decision was overturned by current Turkish President Recep Erdoğan in 2018, one of the many ways in which Erdoğan has lurched Turkey back towards being an Islamic dictatorship rather than a Western Republic as Atatürk had dreamed.
Of all of the insane takes to come out of the current conflict between Israel and her neighbors this has to be one of the most insane of them all. Certainly the audience for Ebaş's speech must have been aware of the historical context here... but then again maybe not. Dictatorships aren't known for acknowledging their past mistakes, after all, and with every passing day it becomes harder and harder to argue that Turkey isn't in the grip of an Islamic dictatorship.
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