Eser Turan

The reopening ceremony of Hagia Sophia Mosque proved to be an eyeopener on the Greek psychosis. While Turkey delivered a surprisingly modest performance, the Greeks turned out to be a wild card and shamed everyone with their demonic fury.

In detail, the ceremony was not the ostentatious Muslim act the West expected; it was rather a calm prayer gathering on newly carpeted floors with barely covered mosaic-laden walls, poised to welcome tourists between prayer times. And when it was over, Turks were happy to overcome yet another internationally loaded socio-political hurdle.

The flabbergasted Greeks however did not take the reconversion well. The Greek government chose to first grieve with flags half-mast, leading to an anti-Turkish flag-burning rampage in Thessaloniki, which was superseded by the schizophrenia that misinterpreted Turkey’s Mediterranean drilling survey near Antalya to supposedly be signaling a 'pending invasion' which then justified the Greek Armed Forces to be put on high-alert, thus bringing the Aegean on the brink of war.

This all happened on the very week when the Turkish-Greek community was grieving the loss of their legendary leader Dr. Sadik Ahmet, who had died in a suspicious car crash in 1995. Everyone quickly realized that the worst-case scenarios about some possible further damage to Ottoman heritage in the Balkans were underestimations. Recalling countless cases of Christian atrocities against Balkan Turks in the past, Turkey condemned the flag burning and postponed Navtex.

Such precautions may remove the Greek high-alert, but the situation actually needs to put the Turks on high-alert and understand that the Turkish mindset is nowhere close to guessing the Greek perspective. 

First of all, philosophizing on the cultural connotations of Hagia Sophia is too academic for the barbaric Greeks, since their paranoia over a revamped Ottoman Empire is taking over everything.

It looks like the Greek complicity with the West against the Ottomans from a hundred years ago has forged a criminal psyche that displays bizarre Macbethian denial antics. They clearly see themselves as the representative of the West and expect Turks to treat the Greek border as the border with the US.

Projecting their betrayal onto ‘the Western powers’ as if it was the West that forced Greeks to backstab Ottomans, Greeks fail to acknowledge that Turkey has been the second largest army of NATO for over 70 years, and that in this day and age, it is the West relying on Turkey to prevent an invasion from the East, possibly unfolding in the form of Middle East terror, orchestrated by some Russian-Iranian-Chinese alliance.

Remembering how the Greeks mistreated Syrian refugees early this year, the Middle East terror portion of this whole equation is news to them. They need to understand that in order to establish peace in the Middle East, Turkey needs to play the religion card against the sheikhs behind ISIS and Hagia Sophia’s reconversion is set to serve as a testament to Turkey’s Muslim leadership in the region.

So before we make any more Ottomanesque moves just for heritage sake, we first need to inform the Greeks on global politics. They need to see that the Americans they trust may possibly need “the  Bookends of NATO” to be as imperially intimidating as possible, and that it may actually be the West foregoing 'the dismantled Ottoman lands' plan, simply to create some "timely Eurasian Union" themselves.

It may help to listen to Mercan Dede’s meditational Radiata to better focus on this material. Watching the commemorative swim from Turkey to Northern Cyprus may energize you to discuss the issue better. Inviting your Greek friends to an informative dinner at a Turkish restaurant, like Sultan Tepe in Komotini may be a good idea. Also, feel free to share Acun Ilıcalı’s Oppo commercial to show them the fun side of the Turkish life lying ahead.

Wishing you a safe week, away from the Greek mess, 
Eser Turan
Founding Editor