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Historic pilgrimage to Pontus

AUGUST 16, 2010 - Emphasis World

BY George Gilson

WHEN Pontian Greeks left Turkey in 1922-23, they took nothing with them but the scars from the deaths of tens of thousands of

their number during their forceful eviction and forced labour, carried out over the previous seven years by the Young Turks and

Kemalist forces. The deaths were recognised by the Greek parliament as a genocide in 1994.

On August 15, the feast of the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, thousands of their descendants from several countries will make the

pilgrimage to the Panagia Soumela monastery in the Turkish region of Trebizond for the first liturgy in 88 years, to be conducted by

Ecumenical Patriarch Vartholomeos.

The monastery, which was once home to the famed icon of the Virgin Mary that bears its name, by tradition one of the few painted

by the Evangelist Luke, is the cradle of Pontic Greek religious belief and national identity, and a point of reference for all Pontians.

Its construction began in AD 385.

Under a 1930 agreement between Greek Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos and Turkish leader Ismet Inonu, Turkey allowed the

legendary icon, the monastery’s chalice from Emperor Manuel Komnenos, and its Holy Bible to be transported to Greece, after two

aged monks revealed the crypt in which they hid the objects in 1922. They are now at the new Panagia Soumela Monastery on Mt

Vermio, southwest of the town of Veria in Macedonia, where thousands of pilgrims flock each year.

The historic liturgy was proposed by Vartholomeos and finally approved in June by a joint decision of the Turkish ministries of

culture and tourism, the interior and foreign affairs; it will be an annual event.

Ankara’s move is widely considered a significant good-will gesture towards both the patriarchate and the estimated 1.5 to 2 million

Pontian refugees in Greece. But it is also intended to burnish Turkey’s European image, and the economic windfall from the

religious tourism is considered significant.

Ivan Savvidis, president of the International Confederation of Pontic Greeks, also pressured the Turkish government to allow the

liturgy. A wealthy businessman and a member of Vladimir Putin’s party in the Russian state Duma, Savvidis organised a liturgy

with pilgrims from Russia and Greece in 2009, but local authorities stopped it.

Pilgrimage

The monastery is currently a museum, and Turkish officials said that religious ceremonies there were forbidden by law. Savvidis

threatened to take the issue to the European court. The businessman reportedly reminded the Turkish government that he had

funded the completion of a mosque in Russia and had invited many Turks to the opening, and he demanded reciprocity.

Between 3,000 to 5,000 pilgrims are expected to make the pilgrimage from Greece, and thousands more from the large Pontic

Greek communities of Australia, the United States and Germany.

Georgios Parharidis, the president of Greece’s Pan-Pontian Federation, told the Athens News that every effort is being made to

keep politics out of the religious ceremony. “This is neither the place nor the moment to refer to the genocide. I ask the many

thousands of pilgrims from around the world to be very careful not to provoke any incidents.”

“Turkey will have substantial financial benefits from the tourism after this positive step, which suggests further democratisation and

helps its European Union membership application. Greece and Pontic Greeks support Turkey’s EU accession. I believe Turkey

could even take the giant step of recognising the Pontian genocide. Friendly bilateral relations can survive in the long run only if

they are based on the truth,” Parharidis added.

Savvas Kalenteridis, a Pontian who publishes the newspaper Pontic Opinion in Greece but is best known as the intelligence agent

who accompanied Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan from Athens to Kenya, told this newspaper that the financial windfall will

be substantial for the city of Trebizond.

He says that the support of local officials and businessmen for the pilgrimage played a role in Ankara’s granting permission, and

that local land prices have skyrocketed since Unesco began funding restoration of the monastery as a tentative world heritage site.

He adds that the mayor of the nearby city of Macka asked that the government permit liturgies on other holidays, and that a priest be

assigned to receive pilgrims year-round.

Exclusive

As for reactions from Grey Wolves and other Turkish ultra-nationalists, Kalenteridis believes these will not be significant. Although

the Turkish Isci Partisi (or Workers Party, which offers a mix of Marxist rhetoric and nationalism) filed a lawsuit to ban the liturgy,

Kalenteridis argues the Grey Wolves organisation is weak in that area of Trebizond, and that the government now largely controls

the “deep state”, which gives the organisation its marching orders.

Turkish security will be draconian, with armed officers all along the route to the monastery. Only 600 people received invitations to

be in the church area, while thousands of others will watch from giant screens outside.

To Vima religion reporter Maria Antoniadou, a Pontian, will travel to the monastery. “At long last we can go to conduct a liturgy

without fear. For us, this moment shows the possibility of cooperation between the Greek and Turkish peoples,” she told the

Athens News.

ΠΗΓΗ / SOURCE: ATHENS NEWS