Five hundred Greek orthodox Christians have celebrated mass in the beautiful 1,600-year-old Sumela monastery in north-eastern Turkey, ending an 88-year ban on religious services at the site. Conducted by Greek Orthodox Patriarch Dimitri Bartholomew I, the mass attracted orthodox Christians from Greece, Russia, Georgia, the US and Turkey to the monastery that sits on a ledge high in a cliff inland from the Turkish Black Sea port of Trabzon Bad publicity from last year’s events convinced the Turkish government of Recep Tayyip Erdogan to ease restrictions on religious services at historic churches with the aim of both improving relations with Turkey’s neighbours and giving a much-needed boost to Turkey’s bid for European Union membership. The lifting of the ban will also see the celebration of mass at the Armenian Cathedral of the Holy Cross on the island of Akhtamar, in Lake Van in eastern Turkey, on September 19 – the first time a religious service has been held in the church since 1915. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10980785 http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gvHWYCs01zinJEbaT4wb-9uEQSmwD9HJU1TO0 I have been supporting this for a while and have joined a number of petition activities over the years, now it is a reality. It shall be a good message to the world in this day and age. The monastry is a very special peace of architecture located at a height of 1200 meters(0.75 miles) that dates back to the 4th century roman empire era if I'm not mistaken. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sümela_Monastery
Weird... I didn't realized that the situation in Turkey was that bad. It's amazing how despotic governments can be, even ones we consider somewhat modern.
Well... we normally think of post-Ottoman Turkey as being more civilized than most Muslim-dominated nations.
Yeah well some nations are freaking out about the idea of construction of a mosque, campaigning against it with massive Islamophobic demonstrations and such ignoring the sentiments of the millions of that religious group living in their country by being threatened of a concrete building whereas we overcome our former restrictive dark spots and allow more and more access to religious communities that, besides a few thousand, mainly live out of our country. Indeed the civilization aspect comes into the picture from a global point of view.
So you're saying that the U.S. should ban Islam for 88 years, just to even up with Turkey's standards?
A monastery being banned and christianity being banned are hardly the same things but that'd require reading the stuff, who needs that while you can jump to quick and awesome conclusions like that
So then you think we should just pick one Islamic sect and ban them from holding services? Maybe the Ahmadi's?
Monastery doesn't equate to a sect either but more like "a" mosque The ecumenical orthodox patriarchy is in Istanbul
And you're complaining because the Americans want to ban one mosque, that's not even built yet, that's being built to celebrate the murders of 3,000 innocent people?
I am not complaining, just showing you a mirror, while the celebrating murders part is pure absurdity.
lol I suppose you are hanging on a cross when you write that, how does that work while your hands are nailed on a board, speech recognition software?