Turkey's Early Christian Roots

Point:

"In the ancient world, Turkey was a key crossroads between Europe, Asia and the Middle East -- and the site of many of the most crucial events in the history of Christianity. The Apostle Paul lived in the city of Ephesus for perhaps as long as three years, and used it as a stopping point during his missionary journeys. The area was also important for another early church leader, St. John, who according to biblical tradition, was said to have presided over the churches of Asia Minor and credited for bringing Mary, the mother of God, with him to spend her last days in a small house outside Ephesus. All seven Ecumenical Councils met in Turkey to formalize doctrine, among them, the influential Council of Nicea in 325, which established a creed still recited in churches around the world. And Constantinople became the new capital of the Holy Roman Empire until the Ottomans conquered the city in 1453, transferring the Middle East balance of power from Christianity to Islam.
Kim Lawton's visits several historic religious sites in Turkey for a look at the important role this land played in the development of early Christianity. "Christianity has some of its earliest beginnings in Turkey," observes Professor Allen Callahan, Society for Biblical Studies. "Pound for pound, as it were, we have more remnants of Christian antiquity in Turkey than anywhere else."

Counterpoint:

"The modern country of "Turkey" did not come into existence until the 20th century. Its existence is not even a century old. It was preceded in history by the Ottoman Empire in Asia Minor which lasted for about 5 centuries before the appearance of Turkey as a nation.

And when Turkey did come into existence it did everything it could to extirpate all Christian presence in the land. What was allowed to remain was taken over for Muslim use (Aghia Sophia Cathdral), copied (the Blue Mosque) or cynically used to attract tourists. The rest was systematically destroyed, including the Christian populations in Turkey. Among these were the Armenian Christians (genocide); the 1955 Pogrom of Greek Orthodox Christianity (a quarter of a million Greek Orthodox forced out), both of which are widely documented. For just one example, see Speros Vryonis' The Mechanism of Catastrophe."

"Turkey" played absolutely no role in the development of Christianity in that area. Rather, it has done everything possible to destroy every vestige of Christianity in that land, constrained only by International agreements.

You need to apologize to hundreds of thousands of modern Christian martyrs, Christian exiles, and to peoples and institutions whose properties have been exapropriated and whose Christian instutions (such as the Halki Theological School arbitrarily shut down decades ago) have been eliminated."
Hellenic News of America