Erdogan’s Hagia Sophia move exposes West’s neo-Byzantinism
Turkey’s President Erdogan continues to irk desired reactions from the West with his decision to re-convert the historic Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
Undoubtedly many people who read this editorial would already be enraged by the title before they even finish this sentence, and understandably so. As a journalist, I’m not supposed to be making such accusations against the free and secular West. After all, they’re the victims here, correct? I mean, here you have this “Islamist tyrant” by the name of Recep Tayyip Erdogan going around converting 1,500-year-old Christian houses of worship into mosques like some kind of neo-Ottoman sultan, and yet here I am calling the good church-going Christians of the West a bunch of neo-Byzantines. The cheek! I must be some kind of Erdogan-sympathiser, right? Or, I might just be a regular guy who, as well as exercising his right to free speech, likes to go a step further and take part in the freedom of thought. That is allowed in the West, isn’t it? Just checking!
There are already too many articles slamming President Erdogan over his decision to turn the Hagia Sophia (back) into a mosque. I have nothing extra to add in that department as a journalist. I’d just be adding to the noise of criticism already being made worldwide, all synonymously repeating the same catchphrases and key words to describe the Turkish president — Islamist, tyrant, oppressor, dictator, provocateur, aggressor, fascist, so and so forth — like an army of programmed drones that have been activated all at once. I’m also not going to speculate here on what Erdogan’s intention was behind the move, although I can list a number of incentives that enticed him to go from claiming just last year that calls to turn the Hagia Sophia into a mosque were a “trap”, to actually going ahead with it.
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Regardless of those incentives, the West’s reaction to the move has revealed a societal ill within itself, one that has been so well concealed that the West’s automatic response to its diagnosis is to reject the very existence of this illness. For too long the West has been telling itself it is secular and democratic, that church is separate from state and religious doctrine doesn’t fuel its politics and policies. It has convinced itself of this lie, and swept its true nature under the rug. So long as it remains hidden, it’s not a problem. It may be protruding from under the rug, but if it’s out of sight, it remains out of mind. It’s a lot easier to pretend it’s not there and instead comment on everyone else’s mess than to acknowledge this incurable disease at the heart of modern Western civilisation. That is, that the West has not progressed from the medieval dark ages as much as it thinks it has, and that Christianity still dictates its direction. I don’t believe there is a name for this sickness, but for the sake of keeping it relevant to the Hagia Sophia, I’d like to call it neo-Byzantinism.
Before I continue, I must clarify that I’m not trying to portray all those who dislike President Erdogan and his decision as some kind of crucifix-waving, bible-bashing, sword-wielding militant missionary. Naturally different people will oppose his decree on the Hagia Sophia for different reasons. Some are simply concerned about what the decision means for historic artefacts in what is an important world heritage site. Then there are those who openly oppose the reconversion for religious reasons, because they are Christians and it hurts them to see what was once a historic church being turned into a mosque. Fair enough to them. Muslims feel the same way about the Grand Mosque of Cordoba, in southern Spain, today being used as a cathedral. At least these people are honest enough with themselves and with others to admit that their thinking is grounded in religious belief. As private individuals, they’re entitled to their opinions and are free to voice them, but when these individuals speak on an official level on behalf of entire nation-states, it becomes another story.
If the West is really secular, there should be no reason for states to oppose the Hagia Sophia move. The Hagia Sophia was originally built as a church, yes, but after the Ottoman conquest of Istanbul, or Constantinople, in the year 1453, the building was actually purchased from the local Orthodox Greek community by Sultan Mehmed II and converted to a mosque. It served as a mosque for almost 500 years until the Republic of Turkey, the heir of the property, decided to turn it into a museum in 1934. Eighty-six years later, the Republic of Turkey, which is still the legal proprietor of the building, decides to turn it into a mosque again. Regarding its status as a UNESCO-protected world heritage site, Turkey has not signalled that it is planning to do anything to destroy or damage its historic mosaics and the like, nor has it stated that it is planning to restrict public access to the site. In fact, nearly all historic mosques in Turkey are open to the general public, including tourists. Orthodox Christians who maintain some kind of sentimental attachment to the site will still be able to visit. So really, all the state-level criticisms against the move, particularly coming from Greece and the EU, are first of all unfounded. Secondly, if we must speak frankly here and in accordance with international law, these criticisms are an interference with Turkey’s internal affairs, and an indication of a baseless sense of entitlement to the sovereign property of another country that stems from religion. But wait, I thought the West was secular?
If you are fuming with me by this point, I’m sorry to be the one to tell you, but the chances are that you yourself are a neo-Byzantinist, you just don’t realise it yet. Of course you would be angry, because accepting this dark truth about yourself would mean that you are in essence all of the same things you accuse the Turkish president of being — a bigoted religious fundamentalist and a fascist imperialist. No one in the West likes to be called these things. Nobody likes being the bad guy in the narrative. After spending so long riding the high horse, looking down on others, to suddenly fall off and land face-first into a hot, steaming pile of reality would make anyone furious. Especially after Europe’s last major episode of fascism, it has been so desperate to hide its shame that it has gone about setting up this whole neo-liberal bloc called the EU, built entirely on the foundations of European guilt and self-inflicted trauma of the Holocaust. Then suddenly a man like Erdogan comes along and pulls at the rug that is hiding its shame. If that makes you mad, that’s absolutely normal, and now that you know how it feels to be exposed as the fascist that you are, it may even make you think twice about throwing such accusations against others in future.
By this point you may be pulling your hair out and grinding your teeth, thinking of ways to discredit me on social media. If this is describing you, then you’re really not going to like what I say next. The same way you’re not as morally superior as you thought you were before reading this article, I’m afraid to say that you’re also not as smart as you think you are, either. You may like to imagine Erdogan as an uneducated Islamist bone-head who goes around severing Turkey’s relations with the West on the path to establishing some kind theocratic, neo-Ottoman wankfest, but actually he’s making a total fool out of you, because now you are the one crying about not being able to go to your little fancy-dress party in your Roman soldier costume. Meanwhile, Erdogan is turning to his depleted Turkish conservative support base, pointing at you, and telling his people: “I told you so, I told you they still have their eye on Istanbul”.
Just as it was for the Byzantine Empire, Istanbul continued to serve as a capital under the Ottoman Empire. Although it is no longer a capital city, it is still Turkey’s most populated city and economic hub. In many ways it continues to serve as a capital, albeit unofficially, not only for Turkey, but for the region as a whole. Whoever controls Istanbul controls the region, and Turks have proved that they are willing to defend the city with everything they have. They came very close to losing it during the First World War, and ever since, it has been etched in their minds that those who tried to invade Istanbul back then are simply biding their time until they’re ready to try again. They especially know how much the city means to the Orthodox Greeks, and their struggle for “Megali Idea”, which officially remained on Athens’ geopolitical agenda until the collapse of the Greek military junta in 1974.
There is, therefore, among Turks, a certain level of Grecophobia, the same way Turcophobia exists in the minds of Greek people. Erdogan knows this, and is playing to those fears by behaving in ways that he knows will irk a desired reaction from the Greeks. Every condemnation from Greece, or from the West as a whole, helps him boost his image as a defender of Turkey’s sovereignty. The threat of sanctions also helps him deflect blame for Turkey’s dire economic situation from the mismanagement of his government to a hostile, external force. It’s like a theatre play. Erdogan writes the script, and the West acts accordingly. Like this, Erdogan also plays on the deep insecurities and emotions of the West. He brings out the worst in his adversaries and highlights their hypocrisy. And as their liberalist masks fall to uncover their inner-savage, so does their position as the world’s leading exporter of so-called universal values become invalid.
This changes the battlefield completely. When the rules of the game are dictated by the West, and points are scored based on who is better at concealing their less agreeable tendencies, Erdogan knows he has little to no chance of winning. But when all the diplomatic niceties are dropped and the battle becomes an ideologically-charged clash of Muslim and Christian civilisations, or Saracens vs Crusaders, Erdogan knows how to come out on top. He knows how to tap into that Gallipoli spirit upon which the Turkish republic was founded, and thanks to his popularity in the Muslim world, he can turn it on and off with the flick of a switch. It is also important to note that while the Christian West largely condemned Erdogan’s decision on the Hagia Sophia, many in the Muslim world actually applauded it, some even calling it a “Turkish Reconquista”. That’s the name of the play Erdogan is writing, and in it, he is the victorious knight in shining armour entering the conquered city on his white horse. If the West doesn’t like his script, it needs to therefore stop playing the role of a defeated Byzantine army, and start engaging with Turkey on a level befitting to the secular values upon which its modern civilisation is supposedly founded.
Ertan Karpazli is the Editor-in-Chief of Radio EastMed.
Tweets @Ertan_Karpazli
All views expressed by the writer are solely his own.
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