Pontian Greek monastery in Turkey celebrates mass first time in 88 years

PanARMENIAN.Net - The Greek Orthodox faithful flocked to the cliffside setting of Sumela monastery in northeast Turkey on Aug. 15 after Ankara allowed mass to be celebrated here for the first time in 88 years.

Patriarch Bartholomew I, center, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, conducts a service at the Sumela Monastery in Trabzon, northeastern Turkey, Sunday, Aug. 15, 2010.

“After 88 years, the tears of the Virgin Mary have stopped flowing,” the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, said during the service.

Greece’s Prime Minister George Papandreou, speaking after attending mass on the Cyclades Islands off the Greek mainland, welcomed the “historic and important event.”

It was a sign of bilateral rapprochement with Turkey and reflected “a spirit of cooperation and peace between us and our neighbor,” the prime minister said.

When Turkey fought Greece between 1920-22 during its war of independence, several tens of thousands of Pontian Greeks were massacred, or died as they went into forced exodus. Some 350,000 people died in what is known as the Pontian Genocide, which Turkey denies to this day.

On Aug. 15, around 500 Pontians were allowed into the fourth-century monastery while around 2,000 others come from Istanbul, Greece, Russia and Georgia, watched the mass on a giant television screen outside.

Turkey in May sent a letter to the patriarch authorizing mass to be celebrated here once a year on Aug. 15.

The gesture appeared aimed at Turkey’s own Greek Orthodox minority, thought today to number around 2,000 people, which complains of discrimination.

In a similar gesture to Turkey’s Armenian minority, Ankara also authorized mass to be celebrated in September at the Church of Akhtamar, in the eastern Van province, Armenian Weekly reported.