Turkey Approves Muslim Prayer Service In Armenian Church

Left: The Holy Virgin Cathedral was built in the 11th century.

Turkey wants to join the E.U and it seems the main three parties, as well as Barack Obama are supporting their ambitions.

The British National Party has made it clear it does not support Turkey entering the E.U because A; Turkey Is A Muslim country, and not geographically part of Europe anyway, and B; Turkey wants to join so it can flood Europe with Hordes of Muslims.

Turkey has been on a charm offensive in recent years, and has gone to great lengths to prove it is a 'modern' country, as opposed to an Islamic state, who long for a new Caliphate.

There is a skeleton in Turkeys closet however, not the siege of Constantinople, as that was 500 years ago, and the history is undisputed.

The Armenian genocide is Turkeys dark secret, and they still haven't acknowledged what the Ottoman Caliphate based in Turkey did, nor have they apologised.

Quite the opposite in fact, the opposition party in Turkey have organised Friday prayers in one of Armenia's few sacred churches, which is in Northeastern Turkey, Ankara have gave permission for the Islamic service to go ahead.

Why would they do this?

Armenian history

OTTOMAN EMPIRE AND THE GENOCIDE

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Above: Map showing the ancient borders of Armenia illustrating that apart from the death of 1.5 million Armenians, Turkey also annexed most of the land which was Armenia.

From The Armenian embassy: History of Armenia - During the 19th century, the Armenians living under Turkish rule suffered from discrimination, heavy taxation and armed attacks.

As Christians, Armenians lacked legal recourse for injustices (as is Islamic law).

They were taxed beyond their means, forbidden to bear arms in a country where murdering a non-Muslim often went unpunished, and were without the right to testify in court on their own behalf.

During the late 19th century, the increasingly reactionary politics of the declining Ottoman Empire and the awakening of the Armenians culminated in a series of Turkish massacres throughout the Armenian provinces in 1894-96 when over 200,000 people were killed. Any illusion the Armenians had cherished to the effect that the acquisition of power in 1908 by the Young Turks might bring better days was soon dispelled.

For in the spring of 1909, yet another orgy of bloodshed took place in Adana, where 30,000 Armenians lost their lives after a desperate resistance. World War I offered a good opportunity for Turks to "solve the issue."

In 1915, a secret military directive ordered the arrest and prompt execution of Armenian community leaders. Armenian males serving in the Ottoman army were separated from the rest and slaughtered.

The Istanbul government decided to deport the entire Armenian population. Armenians in towns and villages were marched into deserts of Syria, Mesopotamia and Arabia. During the "relocation" many were flogged to death, bayoneted, buried alive in pits, drowned in rivers, beheaded, raped or abducted into harems.

Many simply expired from heat exhaustion and starvation. 1.5 million people perished in this first genocide of the 20th century. Another wave of massacres occurred in Baku (1918). Shushi (1920) and elsewhere. Armenian History


Radio free Europe reports on the Armenian church situation, the mainstream media is apparently indifferent to the offensive actions of Turkey.

YEREVAN -- The Turkish government has decided to allow the country's leading ultra nationalist party to hold a Muslim religious service in a medieval Armenian church.

Left: Devlet Bahceli, leader of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)

The opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) announced earlier this week its intention to rally supporters for a Friday prayer at the 11th century Holy Virgin Cathedral in Ani, the ruined capital of a medieval Armenian kingdom located in Turkey's northeastern Kars region. The party had asked regional authorities and the Ankara government for permission.

CNN-Turk television reported that the Turkish Culture and Tourism Ministry has approved the religious service, which is expected to be attended by MHP top leader Devlet Bahceli.

Oktay Aktas, who heads the party branch in Kars, confirmed the information later on September 30. "We are now awaiting Mr. Bahceli," the official Anatolia news agency quoted him as saying.

Aktas said that the MHP action was permitted after a special meeting held by Kars's deputy governor, Muhammad Lutfi Kotan, and other local officials. According to Anatolia, Kotan also discussed the matter with the region's Sunni Muslim leader. It is not yet clear whether the local office of the mufti will authorize or send any clerics to the prayer.

Citing Turkish media, the Russian Regnum news agency said the MHP hopes the Friday prayers will attract thousands of Turks. It said nationalist activists from neighboring Azerbaijan also plan to attend the event.

Built in 1001, the Ani cathedral was one of the largest churches of medieval Armenia. It is now one of the few surviving examples of the ancient Armenian civilization that existed in what is now eastern Turkey until the World War I-era mass killings and deportations of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire.

According to official Turkish sources, the church was converted into a mosque after much of Armenia was seized by the Seljuk Turks in the late 11th century. They still refer to it as Fethiye Mosque.

Left:Holy Cross church - 10th century (minus the cross).

The MHP action will come less than two weeks after the landmark mass held in a 10th century Armenian church located in eastern Turkey.

Ankara allowed the one-off service at the Surp Khach (Holy Cross) church on Akhtamar Island in Lake Van in an effort to showcase its stated tolerance and goodwill towards Armenians.

Armenia's leading political groups and the Armenian Apostolic Church dismissed it as a publicity stunt. They pointed to the Turkish authorities' failure to restore a cross on the church dome in time for the ceremony.

September 19 Armenian Orthodox service on the Lake Van island of Akhtamar

You can have a Christian service, but not with a cross on the church.



The latest MHP action in Ani -- sanctioned by Ankara -- is likely to spark an uproar in Armenia and its worldwide diaspora.

Some commentators have suggested that the Ani prayer is the Turkish nationalists' response to the Akhtamar mass. But others attribute it to domestic Turkish politics.

According to Regnum, a Turkish parliamentarian representing the ruling AK Party, Mahmud Esad Guven, denounced the upcoming prayer as an illegal "political show" connected with the Akhtamar service.

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The Armenian genocide - 1915