Churches
A number of churches have been seized from the Greek Orthodox Christians in Istanbul over the years, all in Karaköy area of Istanbul and the environs. The Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate, the original owners of the churches has never recognized the usurpations and continue demanding the restitution of the temples to their jurisdiction. These have included:
- The Church of the Virgin Mary (Meryem Ana) in Galata, seized in 1924 and which is now the headquarters of the Patriarchate. From 2008 no religious services are held. Built in 1583 by Tryfon Karabeinikov, it is also popularly known as Santa Maria de Kaffa (Panagia Kaphatiani) because it was founded by the Greek community of Kaffa (Crimean Greeks) and is located at 2 Ali Paşa Değirmen Sokağı. The church underwent a number of fires and several reconstructions with the major one in 1840, the date to which the present construction belongs.
- The Church of Christ (Hristos), was seized by the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate in 1926. But it was handed back to the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate after the intervention of the Turkish government in 1947.
- Saint John Chrysostomos Church (Aya Yani) seized after the anti-Greek riots of 1955. Church was built by Tryfon Karabeinikov and is located on 15 Vekilharç Sokağı. After a fire destroyed it in 1696 and replaced by a new one in 1698. Reconstructions were made in 1836 and finally 1853 by architects Matzini and Stamatis Falieros, with the permission of Sultan Abdülmecit I, giving the church the present form. From the 1990s, the church was leased to the Assyrian Church of the East who lacked a temple in Istanbul.
- The church of Saint Nicholas (Aya Nikola), seized after the anti-Greek riots of 1956 The church was built by Tryfon Karabeinikov and is situated on the corner of Hoca Tahsin Sokağı with Mumhane Caddesi. The last reconstruction was realized in 1804. A fire in the 21st century destroyed some parts of the church, rendering it redundant.
Besides these churches, the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate owns an important number of the commercial premises, an office building and a summer palace. They are run under the name of "Independent Turkish Orthodox Foundation".
Read more about this topic: Autocephalous Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate
Famous quotes containing the word churches:
“The churches ... have lost much of their authority over youth because they have refused to re-examine their religious sanctions and their dogmatic preaching in the light of modern physiology, psychology and sociology.”
—Agnes E. Meyer (1887–1970)
“A few years ago, the liberal churches complained that the Calvinistic church denied to them the name of Christian. I think the complaint was confession; a religious church would not complain.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Can you conceive what it is to native-born American women citizens, accustomed to the advantages of our schools, our churches and the mingling of our social life, to ask over and over again for so simple a thing as that “we, the people,” should mean women as well as men; that our Constitution should mean exactly what it says?”
—Mary F. Eastman, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4 ch. 5, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)