Brickbat: Freedom of Religion

Bjørn Christian Tørrissen

The Turkish government has banned the annual mass at a 1,600-year-old monastery. The Panagia Sumela Monastery is built into a rock cliff 1,200-meters high. It was abandoned for over 80 years after the area's Christian population was forced out but has observed annual services since 2010.

Comments

[The Fusionist]

That detestable "population exchange" - dissolving the people and electing a new one...kicking people out of the places their families had lived in for generations, because it's more convenient for state-makers that way...

[The Fusionist]

...sending people into exile for the crime of being the wrong ethnicity...why not ship the politicians into exile instead, send them to Monster Island and let Mothra eat them.

[thrakkorzog]

Two points I feel the need to correct you on. First of all, Mothra doesn't eat people. Secondly, Monster Island is a misnomer, it's actually a peninsula.

As to the actual story itself, seriously what's the argument for keeping Turkey in NATO at this point? They're what, a vital access point for bombing countries that we keep bombing because of vaguely defined reasons?

[Agammamon]

Another thing that's amazing - the EU has not rescinded its invitation to join. Turkey applied in *1997*, negotiations to join started in 2005, and 10 years later they're still not done.

But the EU is so desperate that they'll allow Turkey to go completely to shit and still be willing to accept unification.

[Adans smith]

The European's don't have the backbone to stand up to anyone .It's time for the U.S to withdraw the military units form their. Let them learn to stand on their own again.

[thrakkorzog]

As tempting as it is to tell the Europeans to pound sand, it's unlikely that the US would just stand by for an invasion of Germany or France, and the Germans and French know it.

[Adans smith]

True,but,who's going to invade? Russia doesn't have the ability.. Even without ground forces there the U'S could send massive air power against any mass troops making any invasion a costly enterprise. Plus,they'd have to go through Poland first,and that's not as easy and people thing. Then again,the way the Germans are allowing 'refugees' in,I'd say there's an invasion going on now.

[thrakkorzog]

If you think Russia doesn't have the capability or desire to invade Europe, 20 bucks says Russia will launch another invasion of an eastern European state by November.

[Adans smith]

Not as strong ,their force is as you thing.

[Rich]

It depends on what the meaning of "invasion" is.

[Radioactive]

Mothra don't eat no crap like that...

[HollieGordon]

My last pay check was 9700 dollar working 12 hours a week online. My sisters friend has been averaging 15k for months now and she works about 20 hours a week. I can't believe how easy it was once I tried it out.
This is what I do,.... http://bit.do/FOX92

[Seamus]

I've actually read some ultra-Zionists cite the Greco-Turkish population exchange as a good precedent for what they say should be done with the Arab population in the West Bank and Gaza. (In their defense, the Arab states pretty much implemented their half of that precedent, even without citing it, when they made their countries largely judenrein in the years after 1948.)

[straffinrun]

Fears that the ban will be permanent come amid increasing pressure on Turkey's Christians following the attempted military coup against the regime of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

RecepT.Erdagain. *No law against insulting foreign heads of state where I am.*

[The Fusionist]

Rearrange the letters in "President Recep Tayyip Erdogan" and you get "Ed, try a stripper, cad eyeopener."

[Adans smith]

Morning, The Ottoman worship is strong with this one.

[straffinrun]

Mornin'. *Puts feet up*

[thrakkorzog]

Oh so it's like my dog. He will only hop up and sit in my lap if I pull my Ottoman right up to the chair. There's probably a metaphor there if someone wants to run with it

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

How does cancelling an event due to renovations turn into "GOVERNMENT BANS CHRISTIANS!!!"

[thrakkorzog]

Have you not been paying attention to what's been going on in Turkey? Because Erdogan has been purging everybody who might slightly be a threat to him, and Christians fall under people that might be a threat to Erdogan's power.

Religious sites undergoing renovations have a long history of working around renovations. Worst case scenario, just hold prayer services outside, since God's there too.

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

No, I have not, and all that being true still doesn't turn cancelling an event into a ban, I don't even see any evidence of a ban, just 'some' people 'believe' the (non existent, at this point) 'ban' will become permanent. If there is more to the story, this article doesn't explain it very well.

[straffinrun]

I don't think their fear is unfounded given the behavior of Erdogan and his thugs since the "coup".

[thrakkorzog]

So you're basically just walking into the final five minutes of a story and asking to learn the plot. Erdogan has been trying to setup a new Ottoman Empire, and purging everybody against him.

Next time you want to say something, maybe you should know something about what you're talking about.

[The Hyperbole ((Very Tall))]

Fair enough, I guess next time I opine on an article I'll research the entire history of the subject first. Key-rist, all I was saying is that the headline and the body of the linked article don't seem to jive, It aint my fault if the story is short on evidence of what it proclaims.

[Fist of Etiquette]

Were you listening to the dude's story?

[Radioactive]

yeah, you better...

[BigT]

A short ban is still a ban.

"Even the longest journey begins with a single step."

[Adans smith]

Erdogan is becoming the ' sick in the head man of Europe'.

[BigT]

Isn't Turkey mostly in Asia?

[UnCivilServant]

Yes, which is why they should not be admitted to the EU

[Colonel Slanders]

If the Brits had forced the Ottomans to give everything west of the Dardanelles and the Bosporus Strait back to Greece, there would be little talk of Turkey being part of "Europe".

[Radioactive]

I hatz me any Greecey Turkey...nice and dry is how I likz it

[The Grinch]

Ataturk would be drunkenly spinning in his grave if he could see what's become of Turkey. They're in the process of becoming just another autocratic fundie-Muslim hellhole. What a shame.

[UnCivilServant]

I had hoped the coup was real and would have been the end of Erdogan.

Of course, the world likes to disappoint me.

[The Grinch]

I was hoping he'd get Mussolini'd myself. The military waited way too long and now it's too late-Turkey is done.

[ant1sthenes]

Hopefully it isn't all tough and dried out, at least.

[Pompey (91% LOLLOLZ)]

The coup attempt wasn't conducted by secularists. My Turkish colleague - a self-described pluralist - says the old secular republic is gone and doesn't have any confidence that the coup attempt participants were anything but another Islamist faction vying for the spoils. Whatever might have replaced Erdogan could have been worse, could have been better. We'll see what happens next time.

[Pompey (91% LOLLOLZ)]

I would add that he and his family of four tend to go back yearly - and got stuck in his hometown of Ankara when the last coup attempt went down.

[ant1sthenes]

Do you really think Gulstein is a legit threat, and not just an excuse for Erdogan to consolidate his power?

[kbolino]

It is an interesting comparison, the fascist modernist secular cult of Mustafa Kemal vs. the fascist regressive religious cult of Muhammad. As much as the first is preferable to the second, one things that post-Ottomans, the Turks have a hard time understanding the real key to Western success, which is not secularism per se but rather liberalism.

[BigT]

" the real key to Western success, which is not secularism per se but rather classical liberalism."

Free minds, free markets.

[kbolino]

Yeah, that was implied. This is Reason, after all.

I was not trying to say the key to Western success was whatever was thrown at the Democratic Party platform and stuck this year.

[John]

This is not a very gay affirming post. Do Scott and Robby know about this? I don't think they would approve.

[kbolino]

wrong thread?

[Pompey (91% LOLLOLZ)]

Fixate much?