Turkish academic Taner Aksam teaches Greek academics – Read his article about Hagia Sophia
Turkish academic Taner Aksam teaches Greek academics – Read his article about Hagia Sophia
Following Erdogan's decision to convert Hagia Sophia from a museum that it had been since 1934 to the present day into an Islamic mosque, many articles were written in the Greek, international and Turkish press. What one observes when studying the articles of Greek academics on the subject, beyond the general lack of quality, is a mixture of poverty, shallowness, and a sense of guilt. At the same time, one observes articles by Turkish analysts and academics with correct analysis, apt historical references and wonderful, enlightening conclusions. This situation demonstrates the low level of analysis of our country in the face of the number one national threat to our homeland, which is Turkey. And we will pay for this, because the lack of analysis that led to the inability of strategic assessments is not limited to journalists, but extends to the state, the political and diplomatic establishment and the other competent services. And this weakness did not allow our homeland to assess the threat in a timely manner, to take the right measures at the right time and to be ready to face it today.Equally, the publicists were not only misleading the world but were practicing ideological terrorism on those who had been warning for years about the coming threat. And now we are suffering from Turkey's violations and insults and are rushing to find alliances to confront them. For all the aforementioned reasons, we deemed it appropriate to quote an amazing article by Taner Aksam in his translation friend Leonidas KoumakisThe Turkish academic, with arguments and not bullets, "executes Erdogan and his companions at six meters for the sacrilege of converting Hagia Sophia into a mosque."
Enjoy it.
"Turkey is taking the test of civilization"
by Taner Aksam on ahvalnews
Basically, the overall theme of Hagia Sophia could be summed up in the words "improper" or "shameful."
I fear, however, that the audience I am addressing lacks the cultural subtlety to grasp the meaning of the above words. For their sake, it would be better to formulate it in a more open way, which they could more easily understand: The act carried out in relation to Hagia Sophia is a crystal clear display of barbarity.
It's made of a declaration of "Turkish lack of culture and mania for destruction" to the entire world. The duo of President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and MHP (Nationalist Party) leader Devlet Bahceli is the political alliance through which the lack of civilization and destructive fury have become an official declaration.
But why?, you might ask. Because with this step it is proclaimed to the entire world that "despite the fact that we live in the 21st century, our mentality remains in the year 1453."
"Even now, in the 21st century, we are not at all interested in protecting the world's cultural heritage. There is no sense among us of a greater cultural heritage, beyond that which has been left to us." We have nothing to contribute to the cultural treasures of the world. We are incapable of creating a new cultural value on our own. We occupy the cultural treasures of humanity, break them and/or destroy them.”
That is exactly what is happening. Here, now, in the 21st century, Hagia Sophia, one of the most important monuments of human civilization, will be “conquered” again and turned into a mosque, just like in 1453.
What is happening here is an act of cultural vandalism.
One wonders: Will this collaboration between Erdogan and Bahçeli ever understand the reasons why global public opinion once had such a completely negative image of Turkey and Turks?
The famous 19th-century Russian thinker Nikolai Danilevsky once divided human societies into "culture creators" and "culture destroyers." He ranked in chronological order the ten greatest unique civilizations: Egyptian, Chinese, Ancient Semitic (Assyrian, Babylonian, Phoenician-Chaldean), Indian, Persian, Greek, Roman, neo-Semitic (Arabic) and Germano-Roman (European).
In addition to these positive cultures, some appeared in human history shooting stars like the Huns, the Mongols and the Turks, who suddenly shone, faded and quickly passed into History.
They The shooting stars, having completed their goals of destruction by the death of weak civilizations and the scattering of their remains, return to their previous insignificance and disappear. We can call them "negative factors of History".
Not only among intellectuals but throughout the West, there is no end to what has been said about the cultural vandalism of the Turks:
"On the Balkan Peninsula, at every step the Turk has trampled on the creations of thousands of years of civilization."
- «"Wherever the Turk sees a tree, he cuts it down."
- "The Turks have wiped out civilizations in their path and have not preserved all that they conquered. They were not a civilized people in any sense, and they failed to build on all the cultural foundations they conquered."
- "The places where the Ottoman has set foot have not flourished, the places where the Turk has set foot have withered and died."
- "The Ottoman leaders have done nothing with the places they have conquered, except raze them, destroy them, and plunder them."
Some sources even state that the cruelty and callousness of the Turks did not only concern foreigners. The Turkish leaders "would ruthlessly strangle and kill their own people if they felt even the slightest suspicion of them."
If we were to repeat these reports today, would Erdogan and Bahçeli be able to refute them?
Just take a look at where they led the country:
- Almost everyone who has tried to speak out against the forces that intimidate and oppress the world has been confined and imprisoned, but none has shown any willingness to give up.
- There is no one who has not been forced into silence, who has not been crushed under the oppressive weight of the state.
- The cultural heritage that exists in these lands, and beyond that, nature itself, have taken their share in this destruction.
What has happened and what is happening today is nothing less than the uncontrolled exercise of power. The things that have been done (and are still being done) are nothing more than the uncontrolled exercise of power. Of a destructive will to destroy.
Indeed, the Erdogan-Bahçeli collaboration is the latest declaration of barbarity and faith in a tradition of destruction whose roots are lost deep within these lands.
The geography of Anatolia is today witnessing annihilation and destruction. It is filled with thousands of churches and other sacred places that are used as stables or warehouses.
The Erdogan-Bahçeli partnership (we can easily add Doğu Perişek's Patriotic Party [VP]) represents this very tradition that leveled and destroyed Anatolia, that expelled and exterminated entire peoples, while also destroying their cultural heritage and trying to erase all traces of them.
Today, Turkish vandalism, Turkish destructiveness holds power with the Erdogan-Bahçeli-Perinçek coalition.
Every Turk must therefore understand that his opposition to this axis is, at its core, a war for the protection of civilization.
The regime's imprisonment of wealthy philanthropist Osman Kavala, who created the Foundation for Eastern Civilization seeking to preserve the cultural heritage and civilization of these lands, is perhaps the most painful example of this struggle.
What is at stake here is nothing less than whether Turkey will stand the test, the test of civilization.
In the end, civilization will triumph. But those who resisted, perhaps not...
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PS: The statements regarding the Turks mentioned in the text were taken from the following works:
Avcıoğlu, D. (2017), Tarihi of the Turks (Vol. A), İstanbul: Tekin Yayinevi.
Bilge Kula, O. (2000), Alman Kültüründe Türk İmgesi III, İstanbul: Gündogan Yayinlari.