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Dear President Gül, It is my firm belief that a relevant feature of democracy is to respect the creed and feelings of others, in particular those of minorities. The recent decision of the local Vakιf Direction of Trabzon to convert the Haghia Sophia of Trabzon into a mosque causes pain not only in Greek and other Orthodox Christian communities, but represents an entirely unnecessary and disrespectful act of religious triumphalism. It is also my firm belief that religious buildings should never be converted against the will of those communities which constructed them. Neither should mosques be converted into churches, nor churches into mosques. After the massive deportations, massacres and expulsion of the Greek Orthodox population of the Black Sea Region during 1916-1922, the Haghia Sophia has been unlawfully dispossessed from the Greek Orthodox Church and in 1964 converted into a museum; its recent conversion into a mosque results in architectural changes of the original building, which is incompatible with the protection of the original nature of this building, in particular the preservation of its valuable frescoes. It is also to be feared that this important monument of sacral architecture will no longer be accessible to Non-Muslim visitors of Trabzon once it is used as a mosque. Turkey of today, including the city of Trabzon, has a tremendous wealth in genuine mosques, and there is no need at all to convert the remaining monuments of medieval and early Christian cultures into mosques. Such an approach can only be understood as a provocative religious triumphalism to humiliate ‘conquered’ and ‘defeated’ religions. I have reason to fear that the conversion of the Haghia Sophia of Trabzon serves as a ‘stalking horse’ for the re-conversion of its namesake in Istanbul, which is the most important Orthodox Church building, but has been converted into a mosque following the conquest of the Byzantine capital by Ottoman forces in 1453. A parliamentary petition commission is currently reviewing applications to convert the Haghia Sophia of Istanbul into a mosque. I therefore appeal to you to use the power of your office to stop the triumphalist conversions of religious monuments, which are harmful not only in domestic aspects, but also in international relations. On 16 December 2011, the U.S. House of Representatives adopted House Resolution 306, calling upon your country to return the Christian church properties it confiscated through genocide, and to end its
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