Turkey demolishes iconic church, ‘Hagia Sophia of Bursa’

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Turkey demolishes iconic church, ‘Hagia Sophia of Bursa’

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Bursa is the fourth largest city in Turkey. In 2013, the building was handed over to an Islamic foundation, which left it to rot. Now that it has been razed to the ground, it will be rebuilt as a cultural center.

Turkey’s brazen contempt for Christianity in destroying or appropriating iconic churches, especially Hagia Sophia in July, has affected its tourism industry:

The conversion of the Hagia Sophia and Chora museums into mosques dealt a blow to Turkey’s tourism industry which has already been dealt a blow from the global coronavirus pandemic.

Also, a Time magazine article “warned of Mr. Erdogan’s ‘Love Affair with the Ottoman Empire’ that is moving the nation in a dangerous direction.” Erdogan has, in fact, made no secret about his dream for a revived Ottoman Empire, which very much includes assaults on Christianity as part and parcel of his conquest plan.

“Turkey Demolishes Iconic Christian Church, the ‘Hagia Sophia of Bursa,’” by Thomas D. Williams, Breitbart, September 3, 2020:

Turkish authorities razed to the ground the historic St. Georgios Christian church late Wednesday, an iconic structure known as the “Hagia Sophia of Bursa.”

The Greek Orthodox Church of St. Georgios had been restored and transformed into a cultural center by the Nilüfer Municipality in Bursa. The municipality took over the church in 2006 and invested some 2 million Turkish lira in restorations, reopening it as the Özlüce Cultural House.

Seven years ago, however, an Islamic organization called the regional Directorate General of Pious Foundations filed a lawsuit to gain ownership rights over the church and in 2013 proprietorship was assigned to the İnesiye Village Mosque Foundation. After the transfer, the building received no regular maintenance and was allowed to go to ruin.

In the past, the 19th-century structure had been used as both a Christian church and a mosque, leading to its designation as the Hagia Sophia of Bursa.

The local mayor Turgay Erdem expressed regret over the situation, lamenting the neglect that led to the building’s demise.

“We have done our part to pass on a cultural heritage to future generations. However, the Foundations left the building to rot,” Mr. Erdem said. “For seven years, nobody claimed this structure.”

Erdem said that the structure had since become dangerous because of cracks that had formed, noting that there had been a “danger of collapse.”

Aware of the danger, the Nilüfer Municipality had attempted again in 2016 to recover control of the church to be able to carry out necessary renovations, but received the reply that the building could not be used for any purpose other than a place of Muslim worship.

Last July, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reconverted Istanbul’s iconic 6th-century Hagia Sophia church into a mosque, after 86 years serving as a museum. He then proceeded to convert another historic former church, the 4th-century Chora church, one of Istanbul’s oldest Byzantine structures.

President Erdogan has come under fire for undoing the work of secular Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, appeasing more radical Muslim elements by re-Islamizing the country….

Comments

  1. Jesus Christ said, “The thief comes to kill, steal, and to destroy.” satan is the master thief and his human children are imitating him…daily. er dog an was a fast learner under his master, so he is killing, stealing and destroying all that belong to others…lives, resources and property.

    There is a special lake awaiting him, but no cooling swim.

  2. Cultural awareness, anyone? Ethnic or religious diversity? No? Awareness of other faiths sensitivities?
    Obviously not.
    Gimme, gimme, gimme one frXXXg dXXn reason why we should grant it to them, then. Or how they dare to expect it from us!

    • The way the wind is blowing all over Europe as well as Asia Minor. Very few people actually care about Christianity any more, only a Remnant. The fire at Notre Dame de Paris has never been properly explained. There isn’t the will.

      Islam is the coming thing, full of dedication and barbaric fantaticism. People can see perfectly well what a contrast it is to withering Christianity. People in general do not like Islam in Europe but they are learning to respect it. All the organs of state are telling them: this respect is appropriate.

      • This “respect” is fear and fear ultimately branches into submission or aggression. When safety cannot be achieved, as it cannot under Islam for the unbeliever, expect conflict that government cannot contain.

        To observe groups illegally stopping traffic and lining up in tight rows to show their obedience to a philosophy that calls for your slavery or death is quite sobering to the average free mind. Reading the Quran simply destroys any idea that Islam is beneficial to a free society.

  3. it is all for a good cause: opening people’s eyes to Turkey’s jihadism and maybe to islam’s character…

    • I don’t think that Islam destroying great things is for a good cause.

      • if a building’s destruction helps a million people see the real islam, I am happy to pay that price. It was defiled a long time ago anyway

        • Richard, Islam has been destroying great buildings for well over a millenium. I’m not sure that hoping for more destruction actually helps us in any way.

  4. Muslims did the same to Spain, when they invaded and conquered the country for centuries.

  5. Proof that Muslims don’t want to own everything, they just don’t want Christians or Jews to own anything. If Israel was handed over to Muslims they would shower it with the same neglect shown this church.

      • yup. and back in those days, “palestine” was only holy to jews and christians; the ummah didn’t give a s**t, and the dome of the rock was just another mosque. just goes to show that the best lie is the Big Lie.

        • b.a. freeman

          Good point.

          The late Joan Peters wrote and excellent book on the subject, From Time Immemorial: The Origin of the Arab-Jewish Conflict over Palestine.

    • DavidR

      Gaza being turned over to the so-called Palestinians in 2005 is further confirmation of your comments. It didn’t take long for them to turn that area into a sh*t hole.

    • Israel is not a Christian state ..when has Bhudism become Christianity???

      • Who said that Israel is a Christian state? And no–it is not Buddhist, either–what a bizarre thing to imply. It is, however, a free country. Israel is not destroying churches as Ismail Ali here implies. I cannot think of a Buddhist-majority nation that is doing this, either. But Muslim countries destroying churches–and synagogues, and temples, and all other Infidel places of worship–are rife.

  6. How long before the Muslimes demolish a iconic church within a Christian country? Oh! Sorry, I forgot that they already torched Notre Dame in Paris.

    My money is on an iconic church in shattered, staggering, dhimmi Britanistan.

  7. Filthy POS Erdogan is no different from isis his destroying ancient Greek Orthodox Churches to try and erase Our history to say there where no Christians there. The only history that Turkey has is a criminal record

  8. giving Turkeys and Wild Turkey a bad name.

    I’ve heard of a Murder of Crows; can we call them a Slaughter of Turkey?

  9. it is an eye opener to world must to the christain part of every Nations,this shows that turkey was a pure Chris like believers just line Damascus of Syria,the nation’s were the earliest appostles proclaim the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and coverted most people idle worshippers to Christ.But with what is trending now most generation won’t admit that turkey and Damascus of Syria was a nation besort for Christ everything around it has been subject to muslim jihad movement.like wise there plan to over run europe and most African nation’s in do time.we must be vigilant and courageous to withstand to unseen battles to protect our children and proterity unborn.Till now they trying to eradicate the little evidence that Christ reign .christains should watch and give total support in this battle globally.

  10. “allowed to go to ruin” … Pretty much sums up islam’s entire ideology.

  12. It’s jihad. It’s a war. It’s a war against Christians. It’s a war against everything non-Muslim. Erdolf is positioning himself as a leader of the Islamic world. He is showing how strong he is against the disbelievers … against the dirty kufaar … whom Muslims are required by Sharia to hate ‘for the sake of Allah’.

    Please learn about Islam’s doctrine Al Walaa wal Baraa.

    http://westindanger.com/wb/walaa-baraa.html

    • But Robert Spencer and his jihad watch is already fighting a war against Islam ..with battery of lies and hate speeches against the religion of peace .

      • Stab in the dark here*,but ..you are clearly a muslim troll.
        {gee,how could we have known?}

        So Reason,Logic,Irony:that’ll all be lost on you then.

        islam is a house of cards built on shifting sands in an Earthquake zone and when it falls,there will be a Tsunami of APOSTASY.It has already begun.
        alhamdiddlyillah for the internet,islam’s Nemesis.

        islamic ‘scholars’ have been lying to muslims for CENTURIES:the koran is a fraud.
        Multiple sources show muhammed was clearly a FALSE PROPHET.

        “I have fabricated things against God and imputed to him things he has not said”
        muhammed
        Al tabari 6:111

        muslims didn’t know any of this or the HOLES in the standard narrative because the ‘scholars’ of islam and muslim clergy didn’t want them to know.

        islam is a false religion with a false god/false prophet/false scripture.

        The evidence is there:you just don’t want to see it.

        But many muslims are seeing it and waking up to this..

        *Metaphorically,not literally:i mean i’m not a ‘devout’ muslim from the religion of ‘peace’ running amok shouting ‘allahu akbar’ at infidels.

      • Ismail Ali,

        One thing that we can all count on here at Jihad Watch is that you will always give us the devout muslim point of view…

      • “…the religion of peace”. Hahahah. If I were standing in front of you and said that Islam is the religion founded by Satan in the Cave at Hira by “Gabriel”, who was Satan disguised as Gabriel, you would behead me. Is that peaceful? Well, not to me. But to you it would be peaceful not to have to hear me say that anymore. “Peace” in Islam means removing people who speak up in defense of the One True God (The Holy Trinity). Satan’s ears cannot stand to listen, so it’s “peaceful” to Satan to eliminate these people from the face of the earth. He no longer has to hear them.

      • Note that Ismail Ali considers anyone noting that Islam is violent against unbelievers to be “waging war” against Islam.

        Can he explain how Islam slaughtering unbelievers and destroying non-Muslim places of worship is “peaceful”? Of course not.

  13. Islam a religion of peace? Under my foot.Muslim actions are contrary to that your statement Mr Ismael.Take example of Somalia,one country ,one religion and one tribe.Do you see peace in. Somalia Ismael? Instead of peace, it’s a wasteland of infighting btn different Somali clans.Somalia is a good example of how Islam cannibalizes itself.

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