The 11th annual Orthodox Mass at the historic Sümela Monastery in Turkey’s Black Sea province of Trabzon took place later than scheduled on Friday with the participation of fewer people amid a nationalist backlash over the service, the Gazete Duvar news website reported.
The Divine Liturgy celebrating the Assumption of Mary is normally marked every August 15, but the service had to be postponed after it was targeted by nationalist İYİ (Good) Party politicians and ultranationalist groups.
Friday’s service, which began in the morning and lasted approximately three hours, was attended by a limited number of people due to an order from the Trabzon Governor’s Office: Around 80 people, mostly from Greece, Georgia, Russia and İstanbul were present, although there were more than 350 attendees at the event in past years.
The governor’s office also limited the number of journalists following the Mass and accredited only 18 members of the press, with others not allowed to cover the service.
This year’s service was led by Gallipoli Metropolitan Bishop Stephanos Dinidis, although İstanbul-based Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual leader of Eastern Orthodox Christians globally, had been expected to conduct the Mass as in previous years.
In his sermon Dinidis prayed for peace and solidarity among Christians and Muslims and offered his thanks to Culture and Tourism Minister Mehmet Nuri Ersoy and local administrators for allowing the service at Sümela.
Bartholomew’s refusal to attend this year’s service at Sümela has been interpreted as a protest against the postponement of the service.
Nationalists cite Lausanne Treaty
Turkish nationalists oppose the liturgy by invoking the “principle of reciprocity,” a legal principle that involves mirroring legal effects in situations where foreign countries also recognize those effects. Articles 37 to 44 of the Lausanne Treaty mandate that Turkey respect the rights of minorities and ensure their freedom of religion.
However, Article 45 states that Greece should grant the same rights to the Muslim minority within its borders. Citing this article, nationalists argue that since Greece does not permit Islamic rituals at the Fethiye Mosque in Athens, Turkey should, in reciprocity, disallow such rituals in areas where Christian Greeks are not present in significant numbers.
İYİ Party Trabzon provincial branch chair Muhammet Erkan called the service “a dirty Pontic show,” referring to the ethnically Greek group indigenous to the region of Pontus in northeastern Anatolia, expressing his anger over the postponement of the service earlier this month and calling for its cancellation.
He said the postponement of the event was like ridiculing the intelligence of the Turkish people and nationalists, claiming that allowing the service a week later would not make a difference.
Retired rear admiral Cihat Yaycı, who has long been campaigning against the ritual at Sümela Monastery, was in Trabzon on Friday where he had meetings with local administrators, journalists and civil society leaders for an indefinite cancellation of the annual Mass at the monastery.
He said the people of Trabzon should ensure the cancellation of the service while claiming that there were “evil” efforts in the city, prompting the city’s nationalists to question their roots, as to whether they come from the Pontic people.
The postponement of the service also had to do with celebrations marking the conquest of Trabzon by the Ottomans.
In 2022 Turkish authorities designated August 15 as the day commemorating Trabzon’s conquest by the Ottomans. Prior to that, the celebrations were held on October 26.
As of 2022, celebrations marking the conquest of İstanbul overlap with the day of the Divine Liturgy, leading to even more anger among the nationalists.
Turks who advocate for the performance of the liturgy argue that human rights are inalienable and that international treaties should not impede them.
Sümela Monastery, which dates back to the fourth century, is considered one of Turkey’s most important faith tourism sites and is included in UNESCO’s temporary list of World Heritage Sites.
It was reopened on August 15, 2010 for the Orthodox community following an 88-year hiatus. But it has remained closed since 2015 due to the risk of landslide from the neighboring Mount Karadağ. The monastery is nestled in a steep cliff at an altitude of around 1,200 meters in the Maçka district. It is reopened to visitors for short periods of time.
In Turkey, Christians as a minority group experience various challenges and rights violations, according to the 2023 Report on International Religious Freedom released by the US Department of State. The 1923 Lausanne Treaty formally recognizes the rights of Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians, Jews and Greek Orthodox Christians. However, Christian denominations still find themselves grappling with limitations on their religious rights.