Sümela to host historic mass amidst nationalist protests

Yet the days leading up to the mass, to be officiated by İstanbul-based Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew, has seen strong reactions against the event by parts of the Turkish media and politicians from ultra-nationalist parties. As it was the Turkish government that gave the go-ahead to reopen the Byzantine-era stone monastery of Sümela near the Black Sea -- built nearly 1,000 feet up the side of a mountain -- for once-yearly worship, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has also received its share of that criticism.

The monastery was abandoned after the foundation of the Turkish Republic and the subsequent population exchange between Turks and Greeks. It has since become a major tourist destination along Turkey’s Black Sea coast.

The government eventually accepted Bartholomew’s request to hold this year’s celebration of the Feast of the Dormition of the Theotokos on Aug. 15 at Sümela Monastery, in line with its stated policy of addressing the issues of religious minorities. Security and lack of access to houses of worship are among the leading problems mentioned by minority communities in Turkey and the government has been working to extend the right to pray at sacred sites.

As of Thursday, two individuals who organized an online protest campaign against the mass gave testimony to the Trabzon police, while a lawmaker from the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) suggested that launching such a campaign should be considered a “democratic reaction.”

Ö.T., a member of administrative board of the MHP Trabzon Center Chamber and M.S., a correspondent at a local newspaper, were summoned on Thursday by the Trabzon police due to articles they wrote on Facebook against the mass and calls for action to stop the mass, the Anatolia news agency reported. They were released after their testimonies were taken, the agency said, without elaborating on what further steps will be taken on the matter.

“Having these people interrogated as a result of this kind of democratic expression against the mass is unacceptable,” MHP Trabzon deputy Süleyman Latif Yunusoğlu told reporters.

Later on Thursday evening, along with a group of party members, Yunusoğlu read out a press statement near Sümela Monastery, where mostly restaurants for tourists are located. Trabzon was conquered by the Ottoman Empire on Aug. 15, 1461, and Pontus was discarded, Yunusoğlu said, while also arguing that monasteries are not places for worship but are places for the training of clerics.

Greek, Russian and Georgian clerics want to turn the monastery into a place of worship, he said, adding: “In this way, it is desired to revive pro-Pontus [ideas]. Once you make this concession, then the rest will also come. … Aug. 15 is the anniversary of the destruction of Pontus and of the liberation of Trabzon. We condemn that permission for a mass has been given for this date.”

Earlier this week, in an apparent response to potential tensions over the issue, Trabzon Mayor Orhan Fevzi Gümrükçüoğlu expressed his support for the opening of the region’s ancient Sümela Monastery for worship, while referring to Trabzon as “the city of culture, history and civilization.”

“What is wrong with that? We should demonstrate our culture that has been left from the Ottoman period. What would the Ottomans do? As there was freedom of religion at the time of the Ottoman period, this philosophy should have been valid today in Turkey,” Gümrükçüoğlu said, noting that Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, continued the Ottoman philosophy in that regard.

For the last few years, Trabzon’s name has been associated with controversial issues, including the killing of an Italian priest. Trabzon’s name has frequently been uttered in connection with the killing of Italian priest Father Andrea Santoro as well as the ongoing trial concerning the murder of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink. The 16-year-old who killed Santoro in the Santa Maria Church on Feb. 5, 2006, was initially given a life sentence, which was then commuted to 20 years in prison due to the perpetrator’s legal status as a minor.

As for the case concerning Dink, he was shot dead outside the offices of the Agos newspaper in İstanbul on Jan. 19, 2007. The lawyers for Dink’s family had applied to the European Court of Human Rights in 2008 and again in 2009, arguing the Turkish state had not taken precautions to prevent Dink’s murder. They first appealed to the İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding seven policemen, including former Trabzon police intelligence chief Engin Dinç and former counterterrorism team head Yahya Öztürk, claiming that the officers had obstructed justice.