Mysterious Hagia Sophia Frightens the Turks

From the moment that Constantinople fell to the Ottomans and Mohammad Fatih entered the Great Church of Hagia Sophia on his white stallion, he remained transfixed for a long time on the icon of Christ in the dome. This is according to Turkish sources. This immense Temple of Orthodoxy became the epicenter of different myths and legends which circulate among the conquerors eliciting an intense sense of awe for this great accomplishment of Orthodoxy which now is surrounded by four Ottoman minarets.

But during the last few years certain events centered around Hagia Sophia, and specifically with the unexpected discovery of an Angel in the summer of 2008 in the dome, has elicited among the Turks an intense sense of suspense and fear about the future. In connection with this, all those legends have resurfaced recently and at times have shocked and brought to the Muslims a sense of fear. This fear is that the Orthodox Christian identity will once again rise up in spite of the fact that up until 1934 the Orthodox Church was used as a Muslim mosque.

In this context of events, last January 20, 2012, the Turkish newspaper Sabah which has a large circulation, presented a rather astonishing article about “The Mysteries of Hagia Sophia.” It portrayed in a graceful way this climate of fear which has lately gripped the Turks in reference to the hidden things in the Holy Church and about all the things that will happen in the future.

The first significant element taken from that article is the indescribable fear which is revealed by the Turks concerning the hidden crosses, both symbolic and not, which are found on the interior of the Church and are also seen by the ground plan of the Church from above. As such, the Turks express great awe for the so-called “Cross of the Holy Apostle Andrew.” As is well known he is the founder of the Church of Constantinople. According to the newspaper Sabah, a Cross of Saint Andrew is found on the roof of the Church etched in a diagonal form. It is a significant symbol which not only was not lost throughout the ages of the Ottoman occupation but also dominates the area with its symbolic meaning. In addition to this, “The Cross of Justinian” freaks out the Turks. The legends as well refer to a very ancient jewel which is found mysteriously in Hagia Sophia and in fact comes from Egypt and it has great power. Generally speaking, the construction of this “Great Orthodox Architectural Masterpiece”, according to the same Turkish source, is based on the Christian symbol of the Cross and this reality generates a sense of awe and fear about the future return of Hagia Sophia to its traditional occupants, in other words, to Greek Orthodox worship.

But in addition to the crosses, the Turks refer to other mysterious and fearful things that are found in the interior of the Church. As is referred to in the legend, it is known that after the Church was turned into a Muslim mosque, the well-known Muslim Mihrab was built. It is the Muslim place of prayer found on the eastern side of the Church in the direction of Mecca. But great interest is found, according to the Turkish legends, to that which is in front of the Mihrab. A casket is buried there constructed of bronze gilded with gold. In this casket lays the body of Queen Sophia. Most likely her name is in reference to Hagia Sophia. This Queen Sophia and her casket are connected, according to Turkish legend, with a commandment that has existed for centuries up to the present day. This commandment directs that no one should ever disturb the casket, not even to touch it. If something like that should happen, then according to the legend it will initiate the rising of Queen Sophia. If this should happen then a frightful noise shall shake the whole structure of the Church initiating eschatological seismic events that will frighten the Turks.

This legend of Queen Sophia continues as follows. According to Turkish references, the casket is protected by four Archangels who are found on the dome of the Church. These Archangels, who the Turks believe exist, are: Tzemprael, Michael, Israfel and Azarael. The Turks say that Tzemprael protects the Byzantine/Roman Emperors, Michael protects the Church from hostile attacks, while Tzemprael and Israfel were those who proclaimed the events leading to hostile attacks. Tzemprael and Israfel were the angels that proclaimed the events of the warring efforts of the Byzantine/Roman Emperors. And these four Archangels have been assigned after the Fall of Constantinople to protect the casket of Queen Sophia from the danger of someone profane who might try to open it and bring about the Second Coming of Christ.

Another important legend which is referred to by the Muslims is the legend “Of the Hidden Patriarch” which is similar to the Greek legend about the “hidden priest.” As it is said in Turkish tradition, on the south side of the Church is a narrow passageway. The passageway leads to a very old web-covered mysterious door which is referred to in the legend as “The Closed Door.” According to Turkish references, when Mohammed Fatih entered Constantinople, the last Greek Orthodox Patriarch and his whole escort entered through that door which closed behind them. From that moment these people disappeared while the door remained hermetically sealed and no one ever dares to open it. Every year during the Resurrection Service of the Orthodox Christians, according to the Turkish newspaper Sabah, red eggs appear in front of this door. The legend is completed in a prophecy, which frightens the Turks, that when the door is opened, Orthodox Christian chanting will be heard in the Church again. This is why the Turks are frightened simply by thinking about opening this mysterious door.

The Turkish newspaper reports about a mysterious underground tunnel that exists in a central location in the interior of the Church. As is reported, there is a double door which leads to a big tunnel. This tunnel, as reported by the Turkish newspaper, leads to the Prinkiponisa (Princes’ Islands), and as far as the island Proti (Kiniliada). The mystery for the Turks is how this tunnel was constructed and what role did it play in the long history of the Church.

Another mystery for the Turks is the imprint of the sole of a large animal, maybe an elephant, which is found on the southwestern section of the dome. And here it is reported that this is in reference to some eschatological stories. According to the Turks this imprint is from the horse of Mohammed the Conqueror. But the question is how the horse was able to step upon a place that is so high on the dome.

Great awe is elicited among the Turks, as referred to by the newspaper Sabah, by the various mosaics which have been uncovered with all their glory during the last ten years in the Church of Hagia Sophia. This is in spite of the fact that the Muslim faith considers it a sin to create images of people who are related to religious events. They feel special awe about the mosaic which depicts Jesus with the Virgin Mary and John the Baptist on the right and left of Him. The Turks have named them “The Mosaic of the Apocalypse.” And its symbolism opens up to us its eschatological meaning which is very intense with the Muslim Turks.

Specific attention is made about the mosaic which depicts known Byzantine/Roman Emperors such as John Komnenos with Jesus Christ and the Emperor Constantine Monomachos with the Empress Zoe. All of these depictions elicit intense awe about this Greek Orthodox Christian majesty and the inner power which emerges from these mosaics. They have generated different legends about their eschatological symbolism. These symbolisms are related to the Turkish phobias about the reestablishment and authority of the Holy Eastern Roman Empire with the blessing of Jesus Christ.

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Pagan Erdoğan of Turkey Planning to Convert The Great Orthodox Church To a Mosque?

On April 16 — Easter Sunday – on The very Day of the Resurrection of Our Lord?

On April 16 a referendum will be held in The Antichrist nation of Turkey, where voters can decide on constitutional amendments which will remove all cumbersome checks and balances to Erdoğan’s power – referendum as a power grab by an unpredictable, confused and mad ruler who has fired 100,000 civil servants and jailed 40,000 Turks after last summer’s attempted coup, and is converting his country fast into an Islamic dictatorship.

This “Turkish-style” presidential system means Erdoğan will have the power to appoint and dismiss ministers and high-level state officials without the need for parliamentary approval. He will also be able to declare a state of emergency, issue decrees, dissolve parliament and call elections without being held to account. The president will not only be head of state but also head of government – the post of prime minister will be abolished, and in effect the judiciary will be subject to his control. The way the new constitution is configured means the president could stay in office for a potentially unlimited period of time.

What’s interesting is the timing. It is not coincidental that the spiritually significant Sunday for all Christian denominations had particularly been chosen by Erdoğan and co. to go ahead with their anti-christian agenda. The Turks are warming up during this Christian Lent season with their aggressive and hateful rhetoric: Turkish foreign minister warned of “holy wars” in Europe and Erdoğan has spoken of a struggle between The Cross and the crescent. As Turkey is term president of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), President Erdoğan also intends to mobilize the OIC against “Christian” Europe. Will these impotent mutants start something huge this Easter?

What Is The Significance Of Jesus’ Resurrection?

“Christian Courier” explains The Resurrection of Jesus this way:

The Resurrection of Jesus from the dead is the foundation of the Christian system (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:14ff). If there was no Resurrection, Christianity is a hoax, and we are wasting our time. But the truth is, the event of Jesus’ Resurrection is incontrovertible.

First, the Resurrection is one of the major evidences that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Paul affirmed that Christ is “declared to be the Son of God with power . . . by the Resurrection from the dead” (Romans 1:4).

Second, Jesus’ Resurrection represents an assurance that we can have forgiveness from our sins. Paul contended: “[I]f Christ hath not been raised, our faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:17). The reverse of the apostle’s affirmation would be this: if Jesus was raised, sins will be forgiven when we obey the gospel (Acts 2:38; 22:16).

Third, the Resurrection tells the world that the kingdom of God is ruled by a living sovereign. The founder of Islam is dead and his bones lie dormant in the earth. But the founder of Christianity—sixty years after his death—appeared to John on the island of Patmos and said: “I am the first and the last, and the Living one; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive for evermore” (Revelation 1:17-18).

Fourth, Jesus’ Resurrection proves that physical death is not the termination of human existence. God, who is the giver of life (1 Timothy 6:13), has the power to reanimate the human body. Christ’s triumph over the grave is Heaven’s pledge to us that we too shall be raised. This is why Jesus is referred to as the “first fruits of them that are asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:20,23).

Fifth, the Lord’s Resurrection previewed the ultimate victory of Christianity over all its enemies. In the book of Revelation, Jesus is depicted as a lamb that had been slain, but was standing again (5:6). This same Lord was “the lion of the tribe of Judah” that had overcome his foes (5:5). Christians too will overcome as a result of the Lamb’s sacrifice and victory over death (cf. Revelation 12:11).

The Resurrection of the Son of God should be a constant reminder to us of these wonderful biblical truths.

‘USA Today’ recently reported on a movement in Turkey, with strong political backing, to re-convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

The Hagia Sophia church was originally built in the 6th century in Constantinople and for centuries served as a Christian church and as an Eastern Orthodox cathedral and seat of the Patriarch of Constantinople. When the great city fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 it was converted into a mosque and some of its iconic Christian features destroyed. In 1935 it was again re-purposed into a museum.

Turkey, a NATO member which historically straddles between east and west, should instead transfer it to Greek Orthodox control as an independent enclave similar to Vatican City. It should be de-Islamicized, with minarets and all removed, and rededicated and reconsecrated to its original purpose. Let this serve as proof that Muslims do not intend to force their religion on the rest of us.

P.S: Mark your calendar. April 23, 2017. It’s St. George’s Day in Europe.
On that day France will elect its new president. Will the godless French nation be able to save Europe from the croissant of the oriental beast by electing Marie LePen? I doubt!

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Yemen Tragedy: Forgetting History – Paying the Price

Please read the below report on the current war in Yemen in the context of the story I posted back in 2009, under the title:

Funerals Denied to Ethiopian Christians in Yemen

Millions of Ethiopian Christian immigrants are living under difficult social, cultural and economic conditions in Yemen.

Famine, starvation, unemployment, torture, abuse, and lack of freedom and democracy in their birth country force them to migrate to Yemen, one of the poorest countries in the world. In order to survive, a Christian in Yemen has to convert to Islam or be alienated.

The consequences of not converting can be felt in both life — and death. If an Ethiopian Christian maintains their religion, after death the Yemeni government will not permit them to be buried in Sana’a. The deceased’s name has to be changed (for a fee) to an Islam name by a known Muslim Ethiopian who has good contact with Yemeni officials.

Mr. Imran and Hajji Ahmed are Muslim Ethiopians who have been living in Yemen for more than 20 years. Both are married to half cast Yemenis (in Arabic they are known as Muweleds). They earn a living from Ethiopian refugees in Yemen by processing documents and getting licenses for burial.

Since they have lived in Yemen for many years, they say they understand the behavior of Yemenis when it comes to money. They are also close relatives of Tofick Abdullahi Ahemed, the Ambassador of the Ethiopian Embassy in Yemen. The Ambassador believes that Christianity should not be acknowledged in Yemen.

The Ethiopian Orthodox Church and two Ethiopian Protestant Churches in Yemen are now claiming the Embassy and the ruling faction in Ethiopia do nothing to solve the violence they are experiencing in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Embassy says its main objective is promoting trade, investment and tourism.

Continue reading…

Naturally, it is disheartening to see that Ethiopians in Yemen have unequal status and are denied their human dignity for whatever reason. They are not seeking amnesty, they are just seeking to live in peace and establish an address and an identity at this time and age.

For centuries, Ethiopians have welcomed Yemeni refugees fleeing, for various reasons, to Ethiopia. Political oppression and economic hardships have been the driving forces for migration from Yemen to Ethiopia. These two factors and the hospitality of the Ethiopian peoples have created the cultural bridges between Ethiopia and Yemen.

Even today, Yemenis live and work in Ethiopia, and many of the first and second generations of immigrant Yemenis have been granted Ethiopian citizenship for centuries. They are free to live and practice their Islamic religion freely.

In the 7^th Century, Islam had a chance to learn its history and respect for fundamental human rights outside Arabia by moving to Ethiopia rather than anywhere else. This is a distinction given to this great nation by the Muslim Prophet – who invoked the name of Ethiopia as “the land of justice where no-one would be oppressed.” How would an Ethiopian who is proud of his history as the “Land of the just” be denied living his/her Christian faith?

Yemen and South Arabia were once part of the mighty Ethiopian Axumite Empire. The blood of Yemeni and Ethiopian nations are already mixed, their culture is identical and their affinity goes back into thousand years of history from the Queen of Sheba on and down to today. Very few Yemenis dare to draw the line between these two peoples. Even the Red Sea loses its meaning and international marks when it comes to the historical and familial connections between the Ethiopians and Yemenis.

Despite the current hardship and mighty challenges Ethiopia face, it is still a great nation, and its people deserve better treatment. Justice for the Ethiopian refuges in Yemen is overdue. Any cover-up reason to deny peaceful people the right to live among the Yemenis is unacceptable and it is only right to be grateful for the Ethiopian people who gave much to Yemen at its time of need. Much is expected from those who receive.

For the Ethiopians, it is a matter of choice and their fundamental human rights to live and practice their Christian faith as free as possible on God’s earth. The lack of ideological will and gratitude to the Ethiopian people who are denied recognition and protection at the time of their needs, shows that those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat its past mistakes.

Guaranteeing refugees the right to live freeing as human beings and the right to practice their preferred faith is a higher moral obligation than any other act of charity, and gratitude is an important cultural and religious quality.

History will judge, God will judge the Yemenis and the whole Arab nation by what they do now to the people of Ethiopia. (addisethiopia, July 18, 2009)

Yemen At War: Is The World Catching On To Saudi Arabia’s Crimes?

Yemen has entered the third year of a conflict that has claimed well over 10,000 people, saw millions of civilians displaced, and endangered the lives of countless communities across the country.

For all intents and purposes Yemen has been decimated by a military onslaught of gargantuan proportion – one of the poorest nations on the planet versus an alliance of several superpowers. Western capitals have bought themselves several dark chapters in the history books … how they will be remembered, and one may hope judged, will very much depend on how they proceed moving forward.

There are still crimes the world will not stomach without offering resistance. Resistance as it were, is what has animated Yemen for the past two years, and pushed a nation on the brink, to manifest a movement that saw the bending of the might of imperialism.

In this military embrace, Yemen’s rights to think itself sovereign and independent were forfeited so that Saudi Arabia’s hegemonic folly could be quenched. But no matter, Yemen’s story has yet to be written. It would not be the first time a minority came to overpower the multitude majority, Alexander the Great comes to mind.

Let us remember here that it was the kingdom that unilaterally chose to invade Yemen’s skies, and from the comfort of its war rooms rain death on unsuspecting civilians.

However loudly Riyadh will posit that Yemen’s war is righteous and fair, reason … and hopefully decency, dictate we frown before the slaughtering of a nation whose crime was to argue democratic reforms at the court of a tyrant.

Yemen was earmarked for utter annihilation for it dared speak political self-determination in the face of Saudi Arabia’s grand Wahhabist complex – that monster Western capitals insist on turning a blind eye to so that money could flow freely to its coffers.

I recall how back in September 2015, only five months into this conflict the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) rung the alarm and compared Yemen to Syria – in hindsight I would say that the parallel was uncanny. “In just five months, the country is crumbling into a ‘Syria-level crisis,” read a statement.

After all, like Syria, Yemen has been the victim of wholesale terrorism; only in the case of Yemen, terror was rationalized by the arm that bore it – Saudi Arabia. I will remind readers that slapping a flag and a national anthem on fascism – if we can label Wahhabism under such term, does not legitimize its ideology.

A country interrupted by war, famine, abject poverty and altogether despair, Yemen forever remains the one bleeding scar in the Middle East few media have dared shine a light onto for fear of challenging Saudi Arabia’s media blackout.

It is impossible today to look upon Yemen and pretend that abominable war crimes have not been perpetrated in all impunity. I would personally argue, like many others that impunity in this particular case should be understood as a euphemism for amoral cover-up.

Soraya Sepahpour Ulrich, an independent researcher and author from Irvine, California, put it quite brilliantly in her interview with Tasnim News agency this March when she noted: “What is undeniable is the fact that those who ‘promote human rights’ are the perpetrators of the most heinous crimes, including the genocide in Yemen. To deny their complicity is to deny humanity.”

Continue reading…

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