Basic HTML Version
TURKEY
(Continued from page 6)
mother church of Eastern Chris–
tianity since the fourth century.
Orthodoxy rejects papal infallibili–
ty and papal supremacy.
" The Turban in Constantinople"
The next major chapter in the his–
tory of Constantinople opened on
May 29, 1453. On that fateful day,
the Ottoman Turks under Sultan
Mehmed
11
seized the fortress city
after a seven-month siege. The
Eastern Roman Empire collapsed,
signaling the end of the European
Middle Ages.
With the invading Turks carne the
religion of Islam. Christian for 11
centuries, Constantinople now be–
carne tbe seat of the caliph of Islam,
and was renamed Istanbul. Justin–
ian's Church of St. Sophia-once
the symbol of triumphant Christian–
ity- was converted overnigbt into a
Muslim mosque. Orthodox church–
men in Istanbul accepted Muslim
rule, declaring, " Rather the turban
in Constantinople than the red hat of
a Roman Cardinal!"
At their height, the feared T urks
would rule from Baghdad to Mo–
rocco, from the steppes of Russia to
the Persian Gulf. The Ottoman
Empire would endure for more
than four and a half centuries, until
its disintegration in World War
l.
In 1922 Kemal Atatürk pro–
claimed the Republic of Turkey.
Abandoning centuries of Ottoman
imperialism and traditional oriental
habits, the visionary statesman rap–
idly transformed Turkey into a West–
ern-style society- literally
dragging
the country into Europe and the 20th
century by the scruff of its neck!
There is no parallel in history of so
total a movement from one tradition
to another in so short a time.
As a result of Atatürk's secular–
ization of Turkey's Islamic society,
church and state are totally sepa–
rate in Turkey today. Though 98
percent of its citizens are Muslims,
Turkey's constitution does not rec–
ognize Islam as the state rel igion .
Healing the Breach
With this background in mind, we
can now view current regional devel–
opments in clearer perspective.
Two significant trends are under
42
way that bear enormous implica–
t ions for the future of Turkey. The
fi rst concerns relations between the
Vatican and the Eastern Orthodox
Church. The second pertains to
Turkey's ties with Europe and the
Middle East.
Can tbe nearly 1,000-year-old
breach between Orthodox Chris–
tians and Roman Catbolics be
repaired? This question is attract–
ing increasing attention in Rome
and throughout the eastern Medi–
terranean. Even the predominantly
non-Christian population of Tur–
key-especially the more educated
segmen t- is not blind to the
immense implications of this issue.
Pope John Paul
11
has spoken fre–
quently of the urgent necessity for a
"rapprochement between the spiri–
tual heritage of the Ch ristian East–
ern and Western culture"- meaning
tbe Orthodox communities in the
East and the Roman Catholic and
Protestant worlds in the West.
In November 1979, the Pope
traveled to lstanbul for a visit with
Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch
Demetrios I, the spiritual leader of
the Orthodox faithful throughout
the world. Demetrios is considered
by Orthodox Christians to be the
269th successor to St.
Andrew, one of the disci-
ples of J esus.
The purpose of the
Pope's ecumenical visit
was the launching of a
full-fledged effort to
achieve reconciliation be–
tween the Roman Catho–
lic and Orthodox church–
es, divided since 1054.
The Pope said he hoped
that full reconciliation
could come about by the
end of the century.
Demetrios is said to sbare
the Pope's desire to
strengthen ties between Orthodoxy
and the Roman Church.
It had been John Paul II's prede–
cessor, Pope Paul VI , who had tak–
en the first big step in the search
for unity with the O rthodox
churches. In 1964 Pope Paul met
Patriarch Athenagoras
1
(Deme–
trios' predecessor) on J erusalem's
Mount of Olives, where the two
men exchanged a kiss of peace and
prayed together. T he next year, in a
significant symbolic gestu re, the
From top left: Soviet sbip plies the
Bosporus; 2,000-year-old stone bead
of an Anatolian god on Mt. Nemrut;
mosque and palace of lsbak Pasha,
with Mt. Ararat in distance; sheep
being driven along quay in Trabzon
on Black Sea; scboolgirls in their
uniforms
in
Konya; women weave rugs
in Istanbul shop.
TOP l.EH,STVMP-PT: TOP AJGHT·/>4PAY-SIPA. ALL OT>ER
PHOTOS BY R.
!#:)
S M1CHAUD