Women and Cultural Values are in Danger in This Country…

Noone needs the mosque Hagia Sofia when your country is rolling into hell

Another news on crime against women in Turkey. My heart aches again. I just opened twitter to see the hashtags #pinargultekin #pinargultekinicinadalet about a 27-year-old young, youthful lady being killed, burned, and poured cement on by her ex-boyfriend for rejecting to be with him. This is a type of violence out of this world…It is not the first case of similar crimes happening in Turkey and unfortunately, it will not the last one until their patriarch and moron government changes… People are now re-stressing and furious about the sexiest comments of their political leaders (especially Erdogan’s comments such as, “I don’t believe in gender equality”, “Crimes against women are overrated”, “Those who say -my body, my decision- are feminists”, “Abortion is a crime”, “I don't know if she is a girl or a woman”…) encouraging the root beliefs of those weak souls torturing the women in their families and communities.

It is devastating to see Turkey rolling over the abyss that ugly way. I don’t live in Turkey, I’m from Azerbaijan. But seeing our brotherly neighbors drawn in toxic masculinity, women crimes that are not news anymore and have become something normal breaks my heart. This kind of treatment against women is unacceptable, no matter where it happens.

While these heartbreaking crimes are taking over the place, the country leadership has been busy with less important issues and even triggering ones for the most…

Now in the shadow of this and similar events, I want to remind you about the recent news on Erdogan’s decision of making Hagia Sofia a mosque.

Hagia Sofia is a former orthodox church built during the Byzantine Empire, then used to be a mosque for around half-century when Ottomans conquered Constantinople/ Istanbul in 1453. However, Ataturk made it a museum in 1934 as a symbol of secularism in Turkey. It was resonating with tolerant Turkey of that time embracing all nations, religions, and cultures peacefully under the governance of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

On July 10, Erdogan signed a decree and declared Hagia as a mosque again to be opened to public prayers. That beautiful museum in your Istanbul selfies that used to be the symbol of tolerance, respect, and coexistence has turned to be a symbol of manipulation. That decision of Erdogan was also perceived as another attempt to go against Ataturk’s policies; and also to declare his supremacy, sending an ultimatum to the west over a symbolic element that has a huge potential to trigger many… Opposite reactions were naturally escalated all around the world, especially among the orthodox Christian communities. Even in Turkey, local writers, activists, secular and modern people reacted against this decision while the majority of Muslims were happy to get Hagia Sofia “back”. Ekrem Imamoglu, mayor of Istanbul from the opposition party also stressed the unimportance of such an attempt even during the debates on this topic.

“This is a world legacy, a magnificent work… What is the need to open this debate now, when 97 percent of tourism has frozen, while hotels are closed, while tourism has plummeted and hundreds of thousands of people have become unemployed?” Ekrem Imamoglu

Today, (July 24, 2020) Hagia Sofia official opened its gates for public worships. While I respect everyone’s religious beliefs and values, I personally find this decision unnecessary when every corner in a street is occupied by a mosque in Turkey. This decision was and will be followed by consequences such as:

• Decreasing Turkey’s image in the international arena, especially in the Christian world. Hagia Sofia is a Unesco listed world heritage. Changing its status, even if it is still open to tourists, may remove the monument from the Unesco’s world heritage list.
• It may create unrest, even a conflict between Christians and Muslims, even between non-believers and Muslims, also, between rational Muslims and fanatics. I know this from my experience of heated discussions with my friends that we ended up irritated at each other towards the end…
• It is also supposed that Erdogan came to this decision to gain the sympathy and accordingly votes of his Muslim followers before the early elections that he wants to hold next year (2021) before the scheduled date (2023). If that is the case (which I believe that it is), he actually doesn't care whether Hagia Sofia is a mosque, church, or a museum... He is just misusing believer’s trust and triggering the opposition and the Christian world.
• Naturally, Christian tourists may boycott visiting the country which may affect the tourism sector. Last year, Turkey was recorded as the 6th most visited country in the world, with the main arrivals from European/Christian countries.

I don't want to get more into politics in this post. But I cannot stand when a cultural monument is misused for political games. What about the universal values, humans, tolerance, respect? In modern times, this kind of “wars” over symbolism is extremely immature. It's not a behavior of a leader with high education and experience in politics and international relations, especially while there are more important problems that need to be solved. It takes a true leader to protect human rights, cultural values; focus on important issues, and addressing what actually needs to be changed and developed.

Women are being killed in this country…When most of us have been chilling on our sofas during quarantine, women in Turkey were abused and faced domestic violence. Their own homes are not the safest place anymore. Only in Istanbul, domestic violence increased by 38.2 percent compared to the last year.

I don’t even mention the unemployment rate, state debt, child employment problems. All these important issues are left in shadow, and Erdogan is manipulating the majority part of the population — Muslims. for his political gains.

Make very apartment a mosque then if it will help. But unfortunately this shows that they do use religion and culture will neither lift your downed economy nor bring those killed women back to life.

Similar cases in the world happened before.

When Armenians occupied Azerbaijan's territories in Nagorno Karabakh in 1991, they destroyed and stole our monuments. Former mosques there are now left in ruins, burned, or occupied by cattle. Also, the Cordoban monuments and mosques in Spain (Granada) turned into churches afterward. But the case of Hagia Sofia has always been debatable since its status kept changing throughout history. Also, for the structure and architecture of the monument, it is considered as world heritage embracing two religions, rich with sacred exponents and artworks.

I want to live in a world where political leaders do not trigger people’s Achilles heel- which is mostly religion, nationality, and race for their own benefits. Misusing cultural and religious values over political interests is sickening and repulsive.

Cultural values are universal and sacred to me. No matter who destroys, re-name, changes the status, or shows any kind of disrespect to cultural values is the most vandal person in my eyes. I condemn any nation and individual who recklessly destroys the beauties of this world- undoubtedly these beauties are culture and yes…women… including those women who were killed in that country where human life is still less important than mosques…

Dear politicians, keep your dirty hands off the cultural values and women’s lives. They are not your belongings. They belong to the whole world…Embrace and protect these beauties regardless of their nationality, age, race, structure, appearance.

With love,

Turkan