Constantinople is generally considered to be the center and the "cradle of Orthodox Christian civilization".[52][53] From the mid-5th century to the early 13th century, Constantinople was the largest and wealthiest city in Europe.[54] The city became famous for its architectural masterpieces, such as Hagia Sophia, the cathedral of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which served as the seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the sacred Imperial Palace where the Emperors lived, the Hippodrome, the Golden Gate of the Land Walls, and opulent aristocratic palaces. The University of Constantinople was founded in the fifth century and contained artistic and literary treasures before it was sacked in 1204 and 1453,[55] including its vast Imperial Library which contained the remnants of the Library of Alexandria and had 100,000 volumes.[56] The city was the home of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and guardian of Christendom's holiest relics such as the Crown of thorns and the True Cross. During most of its existence, the Byzantine Empire was one of the most powerful economic, cultural, and military forces in Europe.[57] The imperial role in the affairs of the Church never developed into a fixed, legally defined system.[58] Additionally, due to the decline of Rome and internal dissension in the other Eastern Patriarchates, the Church of Constantinople became, between the 6th and 11th centuries, the richest and most influential centre of Christendom.[59]
The Eastern Orthodox Church split from Rome during the Great Schism of 1054. With the arrival of the crusaders many Orthodox bishops, particularly in Antioch, were replaced by Latin prelates. After the Mongols defeated the Abbasid Caliphate in 1258, the Armenians and Nestorians had decent relations with the conquering Il-khans for a time, but by the end of the 14th-century many Syrian Orthodox and Nestorian churches were destroyed when the Turco-Mongolian ruler Temür raided West Asia.[49]
Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where the Revelation to John was sent. Apostle John is reputed to have taken Virgin Mary to Ephesus in western Turkey, where she spent the last days of her life in a small house, known as the House of the Virgin Mary, which still survives today and has been recognized as a holy site for pilgrimage by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as being a Muslim shrine. The cave of the Seven Sleepers is also located in Ephesus.
In accordance with the traditional custom of the time, the Ottoman sultanMehmed II allowed his troops and his entourage three full days of unbridled pillage and looting in the Christian city of Constantinople, capital of the Roman Empire since its foundation by the Roman EmperorConstantine the Great in the 4th century AD, shortly after it was captured in 1453. Once the three days passed, he would then claim its remaining contents for himself.[61][62] However, by the end of the first day, he proclaimed that the looting should cease as he felt profound sadness when he toured the looted and enslaved city.[63][61] The cathedral of Hagia Sophia was not exempted from the pillage and looting and specifically became its focal point, as the Ottoman Turks believed it to contain the greatest treasures and valuables of the city.[64] Shortly after the defence of the Walls of Constantinople, the city collapsed and the Ottoman troops entered victoriously; the pillagers and looters made their way to the Hagia Sophia and battered down its doors before storming in.[65]
Throughout the period of the siege of Constantinople, the trapped Christian worshippers of the city participated in the Divine Liturgy and the Prayer of the Hours at the Hagia Sophia and the church formed a safe-haven and a refuge for many of those who were unable to contribute to the city's defence, which comprised women, children, elderly, the sick, and the wounded.[66][67] Being trapped in the church, the many congregants and yet more refugees inside became spoils-of-war to be divided amongst the Ottoman invaders. The building was desecrated and looted, with the helpless occupants who sought shelter within the church being enslaved.[64] While most of the elderly, the infirm/wounded, and sick were killed, and the remainder (mainly teenage males and young boys) were chained up and sold into slavery.[65]
The women of Constantinople also suffered from rape and sexual violence at the hands of Ottoman forces.[68] According to historian Barbaro, "all through the day the Turks made a great slaughter of Christians through the city". According to historian Philip Mansel, widespread persecution of the city's civilian inhabitants took place, resulting in thousands of murders and rapes, and 30,000 civilians being enslaved or forcibly deported.[69][70][71][72]George Sphrantzes says that people of both sexes were raped inside the church of Hagia Sophia.
The first capitulation concluded between the Ottoman Empire and a foreign state was that of 1535, granted to the Kingdom of France.[73] The Ottoman Empire was then at the height its power, and the French kingFrancis I had shortly before sustained a disastrous defeat at the Battle of Pavia. His only hope of assistance lay in the Ottoman sultanSuleiman I. The appeal to Suleiman on the ground of the common interest of the Kingdom of France and the Ottoman Empire in overcoming the power of the Holy Roman EmperorCharles V overweening power was successful; thus was established the Franco-Ottoman alliance, and in 1536 the capitulations were signed.[73] They amounted to a treaty of commerce and a treaty allowing the establishment of Christian Frenchmen in Ottoman Turkey and fixing the jurisdiction to be exercised over them: individual and religious liberty was guaranteed to them, the King of France was empowered to appoint consuls in Ottoman Turkey, the consuls were recognized as competent to judge the civil and criminal affairs of French subjects in Ottoman Turkey according to French law, and the consuls may appeal to the officers of the sultan for their aid in the execution of their sentences.[73] This, the first of the capitulations, can be seen as the prototype of its successors.[73]
Anglican, American Presbyterian, and German Lutheran missionaries arrived in the Ottoman Empire in the 19th century.[49] During the same period, there were nationalistic campaigns against Assyrians which often had the assistance of Kurdish paramilitary support. In 1915, Turks and Kurds massacred tens of thousands Assyrians in Siirt. Assyrians were attacked in the Hakkari mountains by the Turkish army with the help of Kurdish tribes, and many Christians were deported and about a quarter million Assyrians were murdered or died due to persecution. This number doubles if the killings during the 1890s are included.[74] Kurds saw the Assyrians as dangerous foreigners and enforcers of the British colonizers, which made it justifiable to them to commit ethnic cleansing. The Kurds fought the Assyrians also due to fears that the Armenians, or European colonial powers backing them, would assume control in Anatolia.[75] Kurdish military plundered Armenian and other Christian villages.[75]
During the tumultuous period of the First World War, up to 3 million indigenous Christians are alleged to have been killed. Prior to this time, the Christian population stood at around 20% -25% of the total. According to professor Martin van Bruinessen, relations between Christians and Kurdish and other Muslim peoples were often bitter and during World War I "Christians of Tur Abdin (in Turkey) for instance have been subjected to brutal treatment by Kurdish tribes, who took their land and even their daughters".[82]
Kurdish-dominated Hamidiye slaughtered Christian Armenians in Tur Abdin region in 1915.[83] It is estimated that ten thousand Assyrians were killed, and reportedly "the skulls of small children were smashed with rocks, the bodies of girls and women who resisted rape were chopped into pieces live, men were mostly beheaded, and the clergy skinned or burnt alive...."[83] In 1915, Turks and Kurds plundered the Assyrian village of Mar-Zaya in Jelu and slaughtered the population, it is estimated that 7,000 Assyrians were slaughtered during this period. In September 1914 more than 30 Armenian and Assyrian villages were burnt by Kurdish and Turkish mobs in the Urmia region.[83] After the Russian army retreated, Turkish troops with Kurdish detachments organized mass slaughters of Assyrians, in the Assyrian village of Haftvan 750 men were beheaded and 5,000 Assyrian women were taken to Kurdish harems.[83] Turks and Kurds also slaughtered Christians in Diarbekir. There was a policy during the Hamidian era to use Kurdish tribes as irregulars (Hamidiye units) against the Armenians.[83][84][85][86]
Treaty of Lausanne
The Greek forces who occupied Smyrna in the post-war period were defeated in the Turkish War of Independence which ended with the signing of the Treaty of Lausanne. Under the terms of the peace treaty, 1.3 million Christian residents of Turkey were relocated to Greece and around 400,000 Muslims were likewise moved from Greece to Turkey. When the Turkish state was founded in 1923 the remaining Greek population was estimated to be around 111,000; the Greek Orthodox communities in Istanbul, Gökçeada, and Bozcaada numbering 270,000 were exempted. Other terms of the treaty included various provisions to protect the rights of religious minorities and a concession by the Turks to allow the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate to remain in Istanbul.[87]
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) reported in 2014 that the Christian population of Turkey had declined from 20% to 0.2% since 1914.[88]
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) designated Turkey a "Country of Particular Concern" for religious freedom, noting "systematic limitations on the freedom of religion or belief" with respect to access to places of worship, religious education, and right to train clergy. The report does note some areas of improvement such as better protection of the property rights of non-Muslims.[89]
In 2013, the Washington Post reported that members of the ruling Justice and Development Party had expressed their desires to convert Hagia Sophia into a mosque. Hagia Sophia, which is called ayasofya in Turkish, is an ancient Christian church dating to 360 AD that was converted into a mosque after Mehmed II invaded Constantinople in 1453. It has been a museum since 1935. Patriarch Bartholomew objected to the government's rhetoric, saying "If it is to reopen as a house of worship, then it should open as a Christian church."[95] Also in 2013, the government announced that the 5th-century Monastery of Stoudios, located in Istanbul's Samatya neighborhood, would be converted into a mosque. The monastery, one of Byzantium's most important, was sacked during the Crusades and later served as a mosque for a time, until it was converted to a museum during the 20th century.[96][97][98]
The largest Christian population in Turkey is located in Istanbul, which has a large community of Armenians and Greeks. Istanbul is also where the Patriarchate of Greek Orthodox Christianity is located. Antioch, located in Turkey's Hatay province, is the original seat of the namesake Antiochian Orthodox Church, but is now the titular see. The area, known for having ethnic diversity and large Christian community, has 7,000 Christians and 14 active churches. The city has one of the oldest churches in the world as well, called the Church of St Peter, which is said to have been founded by the Saint himself.[110]
There are 35 churches maintained by the religious foundation in Istanbul and its surrounding areas. Besides Surp Asdvadzadzin Patriarchal Church (translation: the Holy Mother-of-God Armenian Patriarchal Church) in Kumkapi, Istanbul, there are tens of Armenian Apostolic churches. There are other churches in Kayseri, Diyarbakır, Derik, İskenderun, and Vakifli Koyu that are claimed by foundations as well. Around 1,000 Armenian churches throughout Turkey sit on public or privately owned land as well, with them all either being re-purposed or abandoned and/or in ruins.
Armenian Catholic Church - There are several Armenian Catholic churches in Istanbul, including a large cemetery. In Mardin one remains as a Museum and occasional religious center.
The start of the Patriarchate can be traced to the Greco-Turkish War (1919–1922). In 1922 a pro-Turkish Eastern Orthodox group, the General Congregation of the Anatolian Turkish Orthodox, was set up with the support from the Orthodox bishop of Havza, as well as a number of other congregations[122] representing a genuine movement among the Turkish-speaking, Orthodox Christian population of Anatolia[120] who wished to remain both Orthodox and Turkish.[123] There were calls to establish a new Patriarchate with Turkish as the preferred language of Christian worship.[124]
The Syriac Orthodox Church, that follows the West Syriac Rite, was present in various southeastern regions of modern Turkey since the early medieval times. Since the 12th century, the patriarchal seat itself was transferred to Mor Hananyo Monastery (Deir al-Za`faran), in southeastern Anatolia near Mardin (modern Turkey), where it remained until 1924. In modern times, active churches are located in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Adıyaman, and Elazığ.[134] There are many both active and inactive churches in the traditionally Neo-Aramaic area of Tur Abdin, which is a region centered in the western area of Mardin Province, and has areas that go into Şırnak, and Batman Province. Up until the 1980s the Syriac population was concentrated there as well, but a large amount of the population has fled the region to Istanbul or abroad due to the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. The Church structure is still organized however, with 12 reverends stationed in churches and monasteries there.[135] Churches were also in several other provinces as well, but during the Seyfo the churches in those churches were destroyed or left ruined.
In modern times, Syriac Orthodox Church hase these provinces in Turkey:[136]
Historical Church of the East, that followed the East Syriac Rite, was present in various southeastern regions of modern Turkey throughout medieval and early modern times, and the continuation of that presence is embodied in the modern Assyrian Church of the East, and the Ancient Church of the East. Ecclesiastical structure of East Syriac Christianity in the region was almost completely wiped out in the Assyrian genocide. Originally, one of its main centers was in the region of Hakkari, in the village of Qodchanis, that was the seat of Shimun-line patriarchs from the 17th century up to the advent of modern times. Patriarch Mar Dinkha IV of the Assyrian Church of the East visited Turkey in 2012.[137]
Armenian Protestants own 3 churches in Istanbul since the 19th century.[138] There is an Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey.[139] There are Protestant churches for foreigners in compounds and resorts, although they are not counted in lists of churches as they are used only by tourists and expatriates.
Church of England
Anglicans in Turkey form part of the Eastern Archdeaconry of the Diocese of Gibraltar in Europe. In 2008 the Anglican bishop of Europe, Geoffrey Rowell, caused controversy by ordaining a local man to minister to Turkish-speaking Anglicans in Istanbul.[140]
Evangelical churches
The Armenian Evangelical Church was founded in 1846, after Patriarch Matteos Chouhajian excommunicated members of the "Pietisical Union" who had started to raise questions about a possible conflicts between the Biblical scriptures and Sacred traditions.[132] The new church was recognized by the Ottoman government in 1850 after encouragement from the British Ambassador Henry Wellesley Cowley.[141] There were reportedly 15 Turkish converts in Constantinople in 1864. One church minister said "We wanted the Turks first to become Armenian". Hagop A. Chakmakjian commented that "the implication was that to be Christian meant to be identified with the Armenian people".[142]
After Greeks left in 1925 due to the Population exchange between Greece and Turkey, it turned into an olive oil factory, for a period, and because of that the interior of the building changed. There are plans to be turned into a museum.
^Chapter: The refugees question in Greece (1821–1930) in "Θέματα Νεοελληνικής Ιστορίας", ΟΕΔΒ ("Topics from Modern Greek History"). 8th edition (PDF), Nikolaos Andriotis, 2008
^Chapter The refugees question in Greece (1821–1930) in "Θέματα Νεοελληνικής Ιστορίας", ΟΕΔΒ ("Topics from Modern Greek History"). 8th edition (PDF). Nikolaos Andriotis. 2008.
^"Life, Culture, Religion". Official Tourism Portal of Turkey. April 15, 2009. Archived from the original on April 15, 2009. Retrieved February 9, 2013.
^William G. Rusch (2013). The Witness of Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 31. ISBN978-0-8028-6717-9. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2018. Constantinople has been the seat of an archiepiscopal see since the fourth century; its ruling hierarch has had the title of"Ecumenical Patriarch" ...
^Erwin Fahlbusch; Geoffrey William Bromiley (2001). The Encyclopedia of Christianity. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. p. 40. ISBN978-90-04-11695-5. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved July 24, 2018. The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople is the ranking church within the communion of ... Between the 4th and 15th centuries, the activities of the patriarchate took place within the context of an empire that not only was ...
^ abcBardakci, Mehmet; Freyberg-Inan, Annette; Giesel, Christoph; Leisse, Olaf (January 24, 2017). Religious Minorities in Turkey: Alevi, Armenians, and Syriacs and the Struggle to Desecuritize Religious Freedom. Springer. ISBN978-1-137-27026-9.
^Runciman. The Fall of Constantinople, pp. 133–34.
^Nicol, Donald M. The Last Centuries of Byzantium 1261–1453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972, p. 389.
^Smith, Cyril J. (1974). "History of Rape and Rape Laws". Women Law Journal. No. 60. p. 188. Archived from the original on April 26, 2020. Retrieved October 12, 2020.
^Hannibal Travis, "The Assyrian Genocide, a Tale of Oblivion and Denial," Forgotten Genocides, Oblivion, Denial, and Memory, ed. René Lemarchand (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011)."; and https://etd.ohiolink.edu/!etd.send_file?accession=akron1464911392&disposition=inlineArchived January 5, 2017, at the Wayback Machine "The Simele Massacre as a Cause of Iraqi Nationalism: How an Assyrian Genocide Created Iraqi Martial Nationalism"
^The Hamidiye frequently attacked Christian Armenians. Alan Palmer: Verfall und Untergang des Osmanischen Reiches. Heyne, München 1994, ISBN3-453-11768-9. (engl. Original: London 1992). The Hamidiye also played an infamous role in the massacres against Armenians in 1894–96. Martin van Bruinessen: Agha, Scheich und Staat – Politik und Gesellschaft Kurdistans. Ed. Parabolis, Berlin 2003, ISBN3-88402-259-8. Martin van Bruinessen: Agha, Shaikh and state.
^After Armenians revolted against an oppressing tax system that favoured the Kurds, the Hamidiye suppressed the revolts with massacres, which the British blamed on the Ottoman regime (even though the initiative came from local militia). (SeS) Stanford J. Shaw, Ezel Kural Shaw: History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Volume 2: Reform, Revolution, and Republic: The Rise of Modern Turkey 1808–1975. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge u. a. 1977. Alan Palmer: Verfall und Untergang des Osmanischen Reiches. Heyne, München 1994, ISBN3-453-11768-9. (engl. Original: London 1992)
^In 1895, "the massacres of the Assyrians, genocidal by nature were continuing"... where mass slaughters reached unprecedented levels. "The Assyrian villages and towns were sacked by organized mobs or by Kurdish bands. Tens of thousands were driven from their homes. About 100 thousand Assyrian population of 245 villages forcibly converted to Islam. Their property was plundered. Thousands of Assyrian women and girls were forced into Turkish and Kurdish harems. The massacres were perpetrated as barbarously as possible." [1]Archived October 8, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Sargizov Lev, Druzhba idushchaya iz glubini vekov (Assiriytsi v Armenii) [A Friendship Coming from the Ancient Times (The Assyrians in Armenia)] (Atra, # 4, St. Petersburg, 1992, 71).
^ abcdeThe Armenian Genocide: Cultural and Ethical Legacies, Richard G. Hovannisian, Transaction Publishers
^In 1915, large numbers of Armenians were massacred by Kurdish militia and Turkish soldiers. Martin van Bruinessen: Agha, Shaikh and state, page 25, 271
^On October 3, 1914, Russian vice–Consul in Urmia Vedenski visited Assyrian villages which were already ruined by Kurds and Turks. He wrote: "The consequences of jihad are everywhere. In one village I saw burnt corpses of Assyrians with big sharp stakes in their bellies. The Assyrian houses are burnt and destroyed. The fire is still burning in the neighboring villages". [2]Archived October 8, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Sargizov Lev, Assiriytsi stran Blizhnego i Srednego Vostoka [The Assyrians of the Near and Middle East] (Yerevan, 1979), p. 25–26. The retreat of the Russian army from Urmia in January 1915 had tragic consequences for Assyrians. Turkish troops along with Kurdish detachments organized mass slaughter of the Assyrian population. Only 25,000 people managed to escape death. [3] Yohannan Abraham, The Death of a Nation (New York and London: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1916), p. 120.
^Reports reaching Washington indicate that "about 500,000 Armenians have been slaughtered or lost their lives... During the exodus of Armenians across the deserts they have been fallen upon by Kurds and slaughtered, but some of the Armenian women and girls, in considerable numbers, have been carried off into captivity by the Kurds. [4]Archived September 13, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The New York Times (September 24, 1915)
^ abArat, Zehra F. Kabasakal (January 1, 2011). "4. The Human Rights Condition of the Orthodox Rum". Human Rights in Turkey. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN978-0-8122-0114-7. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
^report, MRG international (2007). A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey. Minority Rights Group International. p. 13. ISBN9781904584636. The estimated number of Protestants in Turkey is 4,000–6,000, most of whom live in Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. Protestantism has been a part of Turkey's history for 200 years, first spreading among the non-Muslim minorities. Conversion from Islam to Protestantism was very rare until the 1960s, but Muslim converts currently constitute the majority of Protestants.
^White, Jenny (2014). Muslim Nationalism and the New Turks: Updated Edition. Princeton University Press. p. 82. ISBN9781400851256. a number that vastly exceeds the size of present-day Turkish-speaking Protestant churches, of whose 3,000 members are converts from Islam
^"Christian Converts Live In Fear in Intolerant Turkey". Der Spiegel. April 23, 2007. Archived from the original on July 19, 2021. Retrieved May 25, 2022. The liberal newspaper Radikal estimates that there are about 10,000 converts in Turkey, expressing surprise that they could be seen as a "threat" in a country of 73 million people, 99 percent of whom are Muslim.
^Hollingsworth, Paul A.; Cutler, Anthony (January 1, 2005). "Iconoclasm". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-504652-6. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
^Kazhdan, Alexander (January 1, 2005). "Photios". The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Oxford University Press. ISBN978-0-19-504652-6. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
^"Divine Office". The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. January 1, 2010. ISBN978-0-19-866262-4. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
^ ab"Byzantine rite". The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Oxford University Press. January 1, 2010. ISBN978-0-19-866262-4. Archived from the original on July 25, 2018. Retrieved July 25, 2018.
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Beitrag, Onders (2012). "Minority Rights in Turkey: Quo Vadis, Assyrians?". The Slow Disappearance of the Syriacs from Turkey and of the Grounds of the Mor Gabriel Monastery. Münster: LIT Verlag. pp. 99–120. ISBN9783643902689. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2021.
Çelik, Zeynep (1993). The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN978-0-520-08239-7.
Fischbach, Ingrid (2012). "Persecution of Christians in Turkey". The Slow Disappearance of the Syriacs from Turkey and of the Grounds of the Mor Gabriel Monastery. Münster: LIT Verlag. pp. 171–177. ISBN9783643902689. Archived from the original on January 15, 2023. Retrieved January 25, 2021.