From Le Figaro with AFP
Published 3 hours ago, now updated
Saint-Ephrem Orthodox Church, inaugurated on October 8, 2023 in Istanbul. YASIN AKGUL / AFP
The Syrian Church of Saint Ephrem, the first to be built in Turkey since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, is scheduled to be inaugurated on Sunday in the presence of President Erdogan.
This is a first in the secular and predominantly Muslim Republic of Turkey, founded in 1923: a Syrian church is to be inaugurated in Istanbul on Sunday in the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. On the European side of the Bosphorus, in the outskirts of Yesilköy, where the majority of Turkey’s Syrian Christians live – the others live in the southeast, not far from the Syrian border – was the Saint-Ephrem Orthodox Church funded by the community with 17,000 members . The large white building is located in the middle of a leafy neighborhood and is designed to accommodate 750 community members.
Sait Susin, President of the Assyrian Foundation of Istanbul, expressed his enthusiasm to the faithful on the eve of the opening: “It is the first church built since the founding of the Turkish Republic to open its doors. We are very happy,” said he told AFP.
Opening postponed
The head of state, who laid the foundation stone at a ceremony in August 2019, instructed the Istanbul municipality to find available land. A year later, in July 2020, President Erdogan, a devout and conservative Muslim, turned Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia into a mosque and then called for the conversion of the Saint-Sauveur-in-Chora church, also built in the 5th century by the Byzantines was built – which has remained closed to the public ever since.
Saint-Ephrem was supposed to be inaugurated last February, but the opening was postponed due to the strong earthquake that devastated the south of the country, killing at least 50,000 people and devastating Antakya, ancient Antioch, one of the cradles of Christianity.
From Mardin to Damascus
Orthodox Syrians pray in Aramaic, an ancient language believed to be the language of Jesus. Based in Mardin in southeastern Turkey until 1932, their church’s headquarters are now in Damascus, Syria.
Saint Ephrem Church is the first church built in Turkey since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, remembers Sait Susin. In the last century, existing churches were restored and other small buildings were able to accommodate their worshipers in complete discretion. But it was done “without official authorization,” he told the state-run Anadolu Agency. “This is the first time a church will be officially built. I am very proud of that,” he added, saying he expects many visitors from all over the country and even abroad.
Members of Turkey’s Christian minorities, who according to current estimates make up 0.2% of the population – the country is secular and does not keep religious statistics – regularly complain that they are treated like second-class citizens in this predominantly Muslim country of 82 million people.
After the official inauguration, the first service entitled “Church Blessing” will take place on the following Sunday, October 15th.
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