“The Christian group can freely carry out spiritual providers in church buildings in Çeşme, however Muslims can’t carry out prayers in outdated mosques in Chios,” Sabri Can Sannav laments. A tutorial from the historical past division of Türkiye’s Trakya College, he factors to the distinction between spiritual freedom within the standard Turkish resort city and the Greek island mendacity only a few miles away from Çeşme. Specialists say Greece failed to stick to reciprocity in securing the spiritual rights of the Muslim group, whereas different international locations comparable to Türkiye present respect to their Christian legacy.
Although Greece and Türkiye appeared to have warmed up to one another after the Feb. 6 earthquakes in Türkiye’s south that triggered sympathy from its western neighbor, the state of Ottoman heritage mosques is some extent of competition between the 2. Türkiye up to now has criticized Athens for depriving Muslim minorities of rights and letting Ottoman-era buildings, together with the mosques, fall into disrepair.
Sannav says the Mecidiye Mosque, transformed into the Byzantine Museum of Chios in 1912, largely misplaced its options as a mosque. “It underwent restoration a number of instances since then that resulted in a large transformation,” he informed Anadolu Company (AA) on Monday. The museum now hosts Christian artifacts and Muslim and Jewish gravestones. The Mecidiye Mosque is the one Ottoman-era construction that remained largely intact in Chios.
“The Mecidiye Mosque is closed whereas Christian trustworthy had been in a position to convene a spiritual service in Aya Haralambos church in Çeşme after 100 years,” Sannav mentioned. “Greece must be extra delicate about this concern. Each member state of the European Union values spiritual freedom and equality, whatever the religion. Türkiye will not be a member of the EU like Greece however nonetheless observes spiritual freedoms. Greece ought to reply the query as to why Muslims can’t pray in Mecidiye or different closed mosques whereas the Christian group can pray in church buildings right here in Türkiye,” he mentioned.
Neval Konuk, an affiliate professor of structure from Marmara College who penned a e-book on Ottoman structure situated on a number of Greek islands, says 4 imperial Ottoman mosques stood the check of time in Chios however none serve their authentic objective. “Considered one of them is a warehouse for {an electrical} equipment restore store, Mecidiye is a museum, whereas the opposite two are used to retailer artifacts from archaeological excavations,” she mentioned.
Konuk says Greece follows a coverage of “ignoring” Ottoman-Turkish buildings inside its borders. “All buildings courting again to the Ottoman period are formally registered as ‘Muslim’ structure. They merely ignore the background of these Muslims. They’re actually not Indian, Pakistani or Arab Muslims,” she mentioned. She famous that Greek data confirmed 8,500 buildings constructed throughout Ottoman rule, whereas Greece merely ignored Ottoman buildings constructed within the interval after the 1821 Greek rebellion towards the Ottomans. She says her analysis highlighted that some 20,000 buildings had been current in Greece regardless of deliberate insurance policies of demolition and different elements.
She additionally famous that Greece’s insurance policies concerned “unnatural” restoration of Ottoman-era buildings that “erases” traces of the unique objective of buildings. “Some are restored in a solution to make them resemble Byzantine structure,” she famous.
On Chios, Konuk mentioned the island was dominated by Ottomans from 1566 to 1912 however unusually, the island hosted just one Ottoman cemetery, whereas gravestones collected from different cemeteries – apparently eliminated intentionally – had been randomly positioned in areas serving as a “type of open-air museum.”
“They take away minarets of mosques or epitaphs. In historic public buildings, we see traces of structure suggesting that it’s an Ottoman-era landmark, plaster is used to cowl these traces,” she mentioned.