The transformation of Hagia Sophia into an Islamic mosque in the most extreme and provocative way had upset the entire civilized world. On May 29, 2023, the anniversary of the fall of the city, Erdogan, who triumphed in Turkey's national elections, is promoting this conversion of the Hagia Sophia as his most glorious achievement.
I'm wondering if the word "blank" is in the Sultan's vocabulary. Because in Greek, this word has a long history from ancient times until today, it would be good for our "friendly" neighbors to know it.
"Aedos Argeioi" came from the eponymous phrase addressed by Hera (Homer's Iliad E 787) and sometimes by Aias (Iliad O 502) to the Argives, who with their uncharacteristic behavior and decisions against morality, destroyed values and traditions . But even in our days, Kostas Varnalis wrote a wonderful poem entitled "Aidos, Argeioi".
This is how Greece responds to the "insult" of the Sultan, whose strategic policy comes into absolute conflict with the cultural policy of the West. Erdoğan considers this act of his to be a strategic plight, but Europe should answer him directly and practically that he is committing an unprecedented historical, religious, cultural misstep. Besides, Erdogan himself, with this act, essentially dissolves the legacy of the secular character of the Turkish state, and declares in the clearest way Turkey's position outside the boundaries of Western legal and political culture.
The bells are ringing for Christianity. Today, the real fall of the city took place, the leading Greek Byzantine scholar Eleni Glykatzi-Arveler said characteristically. With the fall of 1453, Hagia Sophia also became an Islamic mosque, however, in 1934 Mustafa Kemal Atatürk turned the Islamic mosque into a museum, an emblematic museum of Istanbul, in the context of the modernization of Turkey, wanting to highlight the secular character of his country. In 1985, moreover, UNESCO included this museum in the list of World Heritage Sites. And with this Monument, the Sultan dares to show himself the neon "Ataturk", the leader that is, who went down in history as the "Father of the Turks" in recognition of his important contribution to the building of a modern Turkish Republic!
Today, the barbarism from our neighboring country is overflowing, while the indifference from Europe with its Greco-Roman roots provokes! Let us not forget, after all, that Byzantium was the Eastern Roman state and its Orthodox citizens took the name "Romans".
Thus, I believe, the French philosopher Edgar Morin is vindicated, who states that Europe has not progressed either as a political consciousness, or as a cultural consciousness, but not even as a democratic consciousness. Let our partners remember that the ancient Greeks were the ones who gave the name to today's Europe, and she kept it forever!
Ohm. Professor Stella Priovolou, President of the Body of Emeritus Professors of EKPA, Dean of the Municipal People's University of Agios Paraskevi.
THE STEP 3.5.2023
Picture kirill_sobolev / https://pixabay.com
