Well, Hagia Sophia was the price for remaining Orthodox. The choice was either Greek Catholic and Hagia Sophia or Greek Orthodox without. Now the building belongs to the Turks. Kemal made it a museum for his reasons, Erdogan wants to make it a mosque again.
Open Letter 314/8.06."2016"
To Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mr. Ioannis Amanatides.
Mr. Minister.
The zealous involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into a matter regarding a monument (Hagia Sophia), which belongs to another country (Turkey) astonished every clearly thinking Greek citizen. We Ethnic Hellenes are even more astonished from your statement that the reading of a monotheistic religious text in a space that up until 1934 functioned as a monotheistic temple, and only afterwards designated as a cultural monument, is «not in accordance with European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom.” The same is true of your statement that you will “take the case to international organizations».
Because our country (in addition to a foreign) has also a domestic audience, and because your zealotry unfortunately invites opposing views from a wide political spectrum, allow us to explain the reasons of our manifold astonishment.
In the Greece of 2016 of Christian reckoning, the state you represent which supposedly cares for «European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom,» has continuously evaded the recognition of the organization representing the indigenous and historically continuous Hellenic Ethnic Religion —something it ought to have done already, according to its own laws. To make things worse, since the Hellenic Ethnic Religion is forced to function as a not- for-profit organization, it is obligated to pay exorbitant annual «franchise taxes».
In the Greece of 2016 of Christian reckoning, this same state allows the various organizations and representatives of the Christian orthodox faith, which it characterizes as the «dominant faith», to systematically defile our own (Hellenic Ethnic) sacred sites, by building miniature churches on them or performing their own rites, which are not only insignificant but also hostile to their original religious orientation. The Rotunda in Thessaloniki, Dion in Macedonia, and the Areios Pagos (Aeropagus) of Athens are only three of our numerous sacred sites which the «dominant faith» defiles in a way that is contrary to the “European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom”.
So when you finally make your case to those «international organizations» for the unseemly actions of your co-religionists (fellow monotheists) of Turkey, please inform us of the procedures so that we can also make our case for the continuous, unseemly actions of the dominant faith of the Greek state, against the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, our Religion, whose ancient and ruined sacred sites are systematically being defiled, while all of you still pretend that such a religion does not even exist.
Sincerely,
Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE)
Mr. Minister.
The zealous involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs into a matter regarding a monument (Hagia Sophia), which belongs to another country (Turkey) astonished every clearly thinking Greek citizen. We Ethnic Hellenes are even more astonished from your statement that the reading of a monotheistic religious text in a space that up until 1934 functioned as a monotheistic temple, and only afterwards designated as a cultural monument, is «not in accordance with European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom.” The same is true of your statement that you will “take the case to international organizations».
Because our country (in addition to a foreign) has also a domestic audience, and because your zealotry unfortunately invites opposing views from a wide political spectrum, allow us to explain the reasons of our manifold astonishment.
In the Greece of 2016 of Christian reckoning, the state you represent which supposedly cares for «European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom,» has continuously evaded the recognition of the organization representing the indigenous and historically continuous Hellenic Ethnic Religion —something it ought to have done already, according to its own laws. To make things worse, since the Hellenic Ethnic Religion is forced to function as a not- for-profit organization, it is obligated to pay exorbitant annual «franchise taxes».
In the Greece of 2016 of Christian reckoning, this same state allows the various organizations and representatives of the Christian orthodox faith, which it characterizes as the «dominant faith», to systematically defile our own (Hellenic Ethnic) sacred sites, by building miniature churches on them or performing their own rites, which are not only insignificant but also hostile to their original religious orientation. The Rotunda in Thessaloniki, Dion in Macedonia, and the Areios Pagos (Aeropagus) of Athens are only three of our numerous sacred sites which the «dominant faith» defiles in a way that is contrary to the “European norms and rules of respect and tolerance for diversity and religious freedom”.
So when you finally make your case to those «international organizations» for the unseemly actions of your co-religionists (fellow monotheists) of Turkey, please inform us of the procedures so that we can also make our case for the continuous, unseemly actions of the dominant faith of the Greek state, against the Hellenic Ethnic Religion, our Religion, whose ancient and ruined sacred sites are systematically being defiled, while all of you still pretend that such a religion does not even exist.
Sincerely,
Supreme Council of Ethnic Hellenes (YSEE)
