Remember Constantinople


By Theodore G. Karakostas




May 29 will mark the anniversary of one of the most decisive and fateful days
in the history of Greek Orthodox civilization. On that day in 1453,
Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks. Built by the Emperor Constantine
the Great and dedicated to the "glory of God" and the newly established
Christian faith the city would last for over eleven centuries as the center
of Christian civilization.


Constantinople fell to the Turks after a long and bitter struggle which
lasted fiftyfive days. For fiftyfive days, 7,000 Greek soldiers resisted
80,000 Turkish soldiers. The last emperor, Constantine XI Paleologos vowed to
fight for the city to the end. Upon being offered by Sultan Mehmed the
oppurtunity to flee in return for surrendering the city Constantine responded
"I will never give you the city". When the people of the city were informed
that the Turks would grant mercy in exchange for surrendering they renounced
the offer and rallied behind the Emperor.


The defiant spirit prevailing in Constantinople was directed not only at the
invading Turks. The great controversy of the day, reunification of the
Churches of Constantinople and Rome under the latter's terms had split the
Greeks. Ultimately, the population in Constantinople revolted against the
pressure of the Catholic powers by rejecting aid on condition they submit to
Rome. The people of Constantinople refused to abandon the true faith of the
holy Orthodox Church, whatever the consequences.


Ultimately, on Tuesday 29 May the Turks entered the city. The Emperor
Constantine, true to to his vow died in battle refusing to surrender the
city. For three days Constantinople was sacked. Churches, monastaries, and
libraries destroyed and looted. Christians were slaughtered. Young boys were
forcibly recruited into the Janissaries and converted to Islam while women
were taken from their families and taken to the Sultan's harem.


The Sultan immediately proceeded to enforce Islamic tradition by converting
Aghia Sophia into a Mosque. The Patriarchate, empty at the time because the
Unionist Patriarch had been forcibly exiled would be forced to move.
Eventually, Georgios Scholarios, a monk and scholar would become Patriarch
and would restore the Patriarchate at the Church of the Holy Apostles. This
Church has long since been destroyed and is said to have stood where the Blue
Mosque presently stands. In any case, Scholarios would take the name
Gennadios and would negotiate the rights of the Church and nation with the
Sultan under difficult circumstances.


The passing of the city came to be mourned in myths and legends. Stories were
told of the priest in Aghia Sophia who vanished inside the walls of the
Church to prevent the Muslims from desecrating the Eucharist. Myths foretold
that on the day in which Aghia Sophia was restored for the worship of Jesus
Christ, that the priest would reappear to complete the liturgy. The Emperor
himself became the subject of legends and myths and became known as "the
marble Emperor". Since his corpse was never recovered after the battle, myths
declared that an Angel had saved him and that the Emperor was only asleep,
awaiting the time when he would arise and retake the city from the Turks.


Mehmed would conquer the Balkans as a whole in the decade following the fall.
The most fierce and ruthless resistance to the Sultan came from the Romanian
Prince Vlad Dracul, known as the "Impaler". Vlad refused to pay the Sultan
his tribute which consisted of sending Christian boys to the Janissaries and
even killed two of Mehmed's emissaries. Eventually, the Turks came to rule
over all of the Balkan Orthodox Christians.


The last Emperor's niece Sophia Paleologos would marry, in 1472, Russia's
ruler Ivan III. As such, the Russians came to believe that they had a duty to
take the place of Byzantium. With the collapse of "New Rome", Moscow would
eventually claim a position as "The Third Rome". Russia would become the only
Orthodox land not defiled by the rule of the Turks. As with the conquered
Greeks, Russia would dream of expelling the Turks from Constantinople.


In 1589, the Patriarch of Constantinople Jeremias was welcomed in Russia with
great reverence as he recognized the establishment of the Patriarchate of
Moscow. Russia would become increasingly conscious of protecting the rights
of Orthodox Christians suffering under the Ottoman empire. Russia was the
only free Orthodox nation.


Catherine the Great would emerge as a strong supporter of Pan-Orthodoxy. For
a time she advocated the establishment of a "Greek project", the
establishment of a Greek state in Constantinople with her own son as ruler.
As the Ottoman empire declined, the Sultan became more and more a tool of the
British and the French to counter Russian Orthodox ambitions.


Russian ambitions can be described by Fyodor Dostoevsky who wrote: "And so in
the name of what moral right could Russia make a claim on Constantinople?
What lofty purpose could we use as a basis to demand it from Europe ? On just
this lofty basis: as leader of Orthodoxy as its protector and guardian..." .
In the nineteenth century, Russia went to war against the Turks in 1853
during the Crimean War. Britain and France joined the Ottomans in their war
against Russia.


After the Russo-Turkish war of 1877-78, Russian forces neared Constantinople.
Britain and Austria threatened the Russians if they advanced. In 1915, during
the Great War and after the Ottomans betrayed their western backers by siding
with the Germans, Britain agreed to give Constantinople to the Russians. The
Bolshevik Revolution ended that agreement. In 1821, the Greek war of
independence led to the formation of the modern Greek state. In response to
the Greek uprising, Patriarch Gregory V and fourteen hierarchs of the
Patriarchate were executed on Easter Sunday. The remains of the Patriarch
were desecrated and thrown into the sea. His remains were recovered and taken
to Russia where a funeral service was held for the martyred Patriarch.


During the first World War, modern Greece, inspired by the "Megali Idea"
fought on the winning side. As the Ottoman empire collapsed, Greek soldiers
entered the city alongside soldiers of the winning nations. Later, Greece
liberated Smyrna while in Constantinople, Greek residents under the
protection of the western powers raised the Greek flag.


Patriarch Meletios Metaxakis, formerly Archbishop of Greece and North America
lobbied to support the Greek effort after becoming Ecumenical Patriarch.
Greece, then secure in Asia minor proceeded to ask Britain for
Constantinople, also. The British dismissed the idea. In 1922, Turkish forces
under Kemal entered Smyrna and slaughtered the Greek and Armenian Christians.
A century after the hanging of Gregory V, the Metropolitan of Smyrna,
Chrysostomos was butchered.


Kemal turned his attention to Constantinople, still under allied control.
With eastern Thrace under Greek control, the Greeks threatened to enter the
city. The United States, Great Britain, France, and Italy assured the Greeks
that they would not be allowed to remain in the city if they chose to enter.
As such, Constantinople, center of Orthodox Christianity was lost forever.


In 1923, over one million Greeks were driven from Asia minor. The Turks
reluctantly consented to allow 100,000 Greeks and the Patriarchate to remain.
In 1942, an extremely harsh tax was imposed on Turkey's remaining Christians.
In 1955, Turkish Prime Minister Adnan Menderes would join Sultan Mehmed and
Kemal Ataturk as a persecutor of Greek Orthodox Christians. The Turkish
government engineered a vicious pogrom against the Greeks. Among the
casualties was a ninety year old Greek Monk who burned to death when his
Church was blown up by angry mobs.


It is one of the mysteries of history that Hellenism in Constantinople and
Asia minor survived not only the fall of Constantinople, but the Ottoman
empire itself. It is said today that the modern Turkish Republic is a
civilized and western nation. Kemal said to have civilized the Turks built
the modern Turkish state on the ashes of countless Greek and Armenian
corpses. Today, Hellenism is on the verge of disappearing from
Constantinople. All that remains is a small Greek population of 2,500 and the
Ecumenical Patriarchate.


The Ecumenical Patriarchate which has produced martyred Patriarchs,
Metropolitans, and lost most of it's flock inside the borders of Turkey has
bravely dealt with the persecution by the Turkish government. It is the last
remnant of a civilization in the city. It is also a witness to the reality
that no matter how much assistance Turkey receives or whatever it's
geostrategic position the Turkish Republic is unlikely to become a western or
a civilized state.


In fact Turkey has not changed very much in five hundred years. Five
centuries after taking the city the Turkish authorities carried out pogroms,
deportations, and other violent acts against the city's Greek population.
Today, a resurgent Islamic movement in Turkey is seeking to eliminate
permanently the symbols of Byzantine culture. In recent years Islamic
extremists have commemorated the anniversary of 29 May by celebrating
Mehmed's conquest and demonstrating to convert the Great Church of Aghia
Sophia into a Mosque as in Ottoman times.


Some Islamists have advocated demolishing the ruins that once made up the
Justinian walls which protected the Christian city numerous times during it's
apogee. Western societies which consider themselves Christian have been
indifferant to the horrors perpetrated by the Turks against Christendom. In
1453, they were content to allow the city which stood as a symbol of
civilization, culture, spirituality, and learning which produced great
fathers of the Church such as Gregory the Theologian and John Chrysostom to
pass into barbarian hands.


Today, the Turkish government works to restore empty Churches. Aghia Sophia
and countless others are showcased as museums. Turkey worked hard to
commemorate the 2000 year commemoration of Christianity even as they have
exterminated and expelled its Christians. The Patriarchal seminary on Halki
remains closed depriving the Patriarchate of new priests.




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I've copied out these notes!
I certainly HOPE that when the Original Populations of Asia-Minor, Constantinople, ALL of Cyprus, HISTORICAL Armenia etc. recover their Homelands again, ALL DIVISIONS between us "Giavoors" will have ceased!

NT