Our Pilgrimage to Armenian and Syrian Christianity in Eastern Turkey: some essential history

on the road to Ani

Sooner or later in this blog we have to get some historical facts sorted out. As someone who failed history exams at school, you can tell it was never my strongest subject. However I felt at a distinct disadvantage at the beginning of this pilgrimage because I couldn’t slot the ruins of mosques and churches into their rightful historic place in the grand scheme of things in my mind. Hellenistic, Byzantine, Ottoman, Seljuks, Christians: where did they all fit in?
The history of Anatolia (I think at school we called this Asia Minor, from the Greek meaning Small Asia) is enormously complicated, with a great number of tribes and dynasties, and many conflicts over the centuries. I can only begin to scratch the surface here as with some humility I try to put our pilgrimage into some kind of historical context. I wish I had taken more notice of my history lessons at school all those years ago. They would have come in handy now! Instead I used to draw train engines – yes really! I had quite a passion for them, and for some reason the teacher humoured me and let me get on with it.
And if you don’t listen in lessons you can’t expect to pass exams!
So here is my attempt to try to condense enormous volumes of complex historical events into a bite size portion that is relevant to our pilgrimage, is tolerably accurate and which I hope is not too difficult to digest. It can all get enormously confusing because historical scholars seem to disagree among themselves sometimes, there being for example several definitions of both Hellenistic culture and the Byzantine Empire and the periods they cover. With all that in mind, here goes!!

Anatolia was one of the first places where Christianity spread, so that by the 4th century AD, western and central Anatolia were overwhelmingly Christian and Greek-speaking. For the next 600 years, while Imperial possessions in Europe were subjected to barbarian invasions, Anatolia would be the center of the Greek Hellenic civilization albeit under Byzantine control since the split of the Roman Empire into two in 395 AD. Byzantine control was challenged by Arab raids starting in the 8th century with a series of wars, the Byzantine-Arab Wars.

on the road to Ani

So where do the Seljuks fit in? The House of Seljuk was a branch of the Oguz Turks whose original homeland was the Ural-Altay region of Central Asia, on the edge of the Muslim world. This has been the domain of Turkic peoples since antiquity, although their mass-migrations from Central Asia occurred from the 9th century onwards. In the 10th century, the Seljuks started migrating in a big way from their ancestral homeland into Persia which became the administrative core of the Great Seljuk Empire. Then towards the end of the 11th Century they began penetrating into the eastern regions of Anatolia, then under the rule of the Byzantines where they started building mosques such as those we have seen and will see at places like Ani. The Seljuks fought and defeated the Byzantine army in 1071, at the Battle of Manzikert and the capture of the Emperor Romanos IV Diogenes of the Byzantine military aristocracy played an important role in undermining Byzantine authority in Anatolia and Armenia and paved the way for the gradual Turkification of Anatolia. (The Emperor is said to have been blinded, retreated to a monastery and died of his wounds – I wonder which monastery? Does history record?)
The Turkish language and Islam introduced to Anatolia gradually spread over the region and the slow transition from a predominantly Christian and Greek speaking Anatolia to a predominantly Turkish speaking Muslim region was well underway.

But the Seljuk armies didn’t always have it their own way. They were defeated by the Mongols in 1242, and the power of their empire then slowly disintegrated. This made way for one of the Turkish principalities governed by Osman 1 to evolve over the next 200 years or so into the Ottoman Empire which then expanded throughout Anatolia, the Balkans, the Levant and North Africa. In 1453, the Ottomans completed their conquest of the Byzantine Empire by capturing its capital Constantinople.

on the road to Ani

The Ottoman Empire, named after this Osman I, was to prevail as a world empire for almost six centuries, Its power and prestige peaked in the 16th and 17th centuries, although it was often in conflict with those who came in its way, for example the Holy Roman Empire, in its advance to Central Europe through the Balkans. In the early part of the 16th century the Ottoman Empire’s borders were extended south and east and into Egypt and Algeria, and conflicts arose with Portugal over maritime dominance as the Portuguese were perceived to be threatening Ottoman monopoly over the Silk Road, the ancient trading route between East Asia and Western Europe. From the beginning of the 19th century onwards, the Ottoman Empire began to decline and many Balkan Muslims migrated to the Empire's heartland in Anatolia. The Ottoman Empire entered WW1 on the side of the Central Powers (comprising the German Empire, the Austro- Hungarian Empire, the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria). It was ultimately defeated. During the war, an estimated 1.5 million Armenians were deported and exterminated in the Armenian Genocide although there is still much controversy surrounding the exact circumstances of this. There were also large scale massacres committed against the Greeks and Assyrians. Following the Armistice of Mudros on 30 October 1918 the Allied Powers sought to partition the Ottoman State but Turkish Nationalists then waged the Turkish War of Independence against the occupying Allies. The Turkish National Movement in Anatolia led to the formation of a new Grand National Assembly by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. The War of Independence culminated in the Treaty of Lausanne in July 1923, the allies left Anatolia and the GNA decided to establish a republic of Turkey – declared on 29th October 1923 – a modern secular nation-state.
The Ottoman Empire ceased to be on 1 November 1922. 

the gorge at Ani

Now if you still have the stomach for some more history lessons, here is how the history of Kars slots into all that. I have taken this from the excellent on line official guide book to Kars that I have mentioned before. Here you will find a really good time line that makes sense of all this is an easy to follow sequence if you still want more! The first known inhabitants of Kars were the Hurrians, who go back incredibly to 13,000 BC and apparently stuck around for a very long time! The Urartus occupied the region in 900 BC. The Iskits ruled in the 7th century BC but failed to fight off the Persians in the 6th Century BC. In the 4th century BC Alexander the Great of Macedonia won the war against the Persians and took hold of the region, ushering in a spread of Greek culture into the east resulting in a new Hellenistic civilization. The tribe of Parts and the Armenian feudal lords dependent on it then occupied Kars from time to time. Since the 2nd century AD Kars and its surroundings continually changed hands from the Romans to the Sasanis. In 395 the Roman Empire divided into two, and the region found itself in the Byzantine/East Roman Empire. In 646 Kars became Muslim Arab. In 961 the Armenian feudal lords founded the Bagrat Kingdom and made the city of Ani its capital but the Byzantines soon drove the Armenians out from the region.
After 20 years of Byzantine dominance the Seljuk Sultan Alparslan occupied Ani and Kars in 1064.
This region was the first part of Anatolia captured by Turks, 7 years before the victory of Malazgirt in 1071. Byzantines tried to get Kars back in 1080 but lost to the Seljuks. Then in 1124 the Georgians occupied Ani and Kars, but the Seljuks regained control in 1124. 1239 was the Mongolian invasion when they took over the whole of Anatolia starting with Kars and Ani. In later centuries the city was repeatedly disputed between Ottomans and the Safevi country and changed hands many times over the years between Byzantines, Georgians and Armenians. Kars was conquered by the Russians twice in the 19th century and again in the 20th century before the Armenian Turks gained control. And there you have it…

on the road to Ani

no wonder there is such a wonderful variety of different architectural styles in Kars! 

If any historian wants to put me right on any of this then please do…
Tomorrow I shall leave history behind and continue with our travels...hopefully I for one will be better informed.

Our pilgrimage to Eastern Turkey Day 1: Erzurum

For those of us who had never been to this part of Turkey before, I don’t think any of us had very much idea what to expect from this trip. The itinerary, telling us that we would start with an exploration of the abandoned ruins of Armenian Christianity and some spectacular remains of their civilization, meant little to me anyway, in spite of some background reading beforehand.

I found history very boring at school but I wish I'd paid a little more attention because I soon found that it was important to understand some of the historical background to the places we were to visit if we were to get the most out of our trip. So here's a little background to Erzurum, in Eastern Anatolia. This paragraph can be skipped if you just want to read about the sites visited and nothing more but I promise you it does have some relevance now and later!

Erzurum can only be traced with certainty to the 4th century AD, when it was part of the old Armenian Empire, where our pilgrimage begins. Some however claim a history dating as far back as 4000 BC. It is located on the historic Silk Road from Persia to the Black Sea and is Turkey’s highest main city at more than 1750 metres. Erzurum is famous for its Seljuk architecture, the House of Seljuq being a Turkish Sunni Muslim dynasty that gradually adopted Persian culture and contributed to the Turko-Persian tradition in the medieval West and Central Asia. As with so many of the towns in this part of the world, Erzurum has had a turbulent and violent history. Occupied twice by the Russians in the19th Century and again in the First World War, it features in John Buchan’s novel Greenmantle, a mainly fictional story but with a smattering of truth; in the story Richard Hannay of The Thirty Nine Steps fame, and his friends, must thwart the Germans’ plans to use religion to help them win the war, climaxing at the battle of Erzurum. In 1915 in real life the town suffered from the genocide by the Ottomans of its prominent Armenian Christians and by 1919 the mostly Christian Armenian population, predominantly of the Armenian Apostolic Church, had virtually died out. This ethnic cleansing of Armenians during the final years of the Ottoman Empire is air brushed out of some history books and not always accepted as the genocide that it clearly was. It is estimated that 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives in the persecutions of 1894-1896, and then in 1915-1916, when during WW1 the Turks regarded the Christian Armenians in Turkey of being potential allies of Imperial Russia and therefore the enemy. It is clear that there are still deep and unhealed wounds felt by the remaining Armenians from this era. It was a sobering start to our journey.

Erzurum is now a huge commercial and cultural center, known for its winter sports, its precious minerals and tourism, but mainly perhaps for its Ataturk University, which makes an important contribution to the economy of the city. On the surrounding fertile plain crops of wheat, barley, millet, sugar beets, and other vegetables, are grown, and there is much livestock trading. As we drove in from the hotel we saw huge flocks of sheep and goats seemingly roaming freely everywhere around the outskirts, under the watchful eye of one or more shepherds, usually assisted by a dog or two.

We stopped off in Erzurum mainly to see the Çifte Minareli Medrese or twin minaret madrasa, a typical example of a Seljuk Koranic school, and the Ulu Cami, a somewhat plain looking mosque from the street before we entered, but noted for its seven wide aisles and pillared hall, and for being the oldest building in Erzurum after the madrasa.

Unfortunately the madrasa was closed and undergoing extensive renovation at the time of our visit so we were unable to enter the museum or see very much of the outside beyond the scaffolding. But we could clearly see the two fluted brick minarets flanking the exceptionally fine ornamented entrance portal, and make out the partial relief decoration in the form of ornamental borders, a tree with a double eagle and a vase of leaves.

Before we took a guided tour of the Ulu Cami, just around the corner from the Medrese, and opposite the town hall, our attention was caught by the "Three Kümbets", to the rear of the medrese, up a side street lined with what were clearly very old buildings, some housing small shops and cafes. These Kumbets, or mausolea, free standing buildings that housed burial chambers or interment spaces, date from the 13th or early 14th century. The Taj Mahal is of course the most famous and most photographed mausoleum, and these were not quite in that league, but interesting none the less. The most splendid of the three is the octagonal Emir Sultan Türbesi, with a conical roof, stalactitic mouldings and handsome reliefs of creatures such as snakes, eagles, and rabbits' heads.

Some boys had been watching us explore the mausolea. Soon they came over and invited us to go with them to view what turned out to be a very old house furnished in the old Armenian style, presented as a museum of that culture. We all took off our shoes as is the custom and went indoors, ducking our heads as we climbed the very old, low ceilinged stairs to enter into the amazing array of rooms within, seemingly on many different uneven levels. In the first room, the main living area, the no nails roof construction gave a curious and appealing appearance of an internally terraced cone. This was to be repeated in later mosques and churches we visited.

The door knockers on the outer door were fascinating. There were two, one larger, for the men, and the smaller one for the women and children; so the people within could know who was knocking!

We finally made it to the mosque where the Imam was waiting to show us around. My abiding memory from that visit is of a man with the kindest glowing face who clearly loved showing off such an interesting and ancient building. He can be found giving much the same guided tour of his mosque on YouTube. The mosque was constructed in 1179, but was badly damaged in the massive 1939 earthquake which claimed many thousands of lives in the city. It has now been accurately and sympathetically restored. We learnt so much that was fascinating about the design and architecture of mosques from this man. The mosque pillars here, we were told, were placed for best acoustics. Windows high above us in the walls were designed to capture the changing directions of the sun’s rays throughout the day to signal the times for prayer. This mosque, we were told, was also used as a depot in Ottoman times. Early mosques were built with very thick walls, and often several columns and domes, to support large enough spaces to accommodate the male and female faithful in segregation.

The floor space was wide rather than long, so that all could be as close as possible to the mihrab, the ornamental indentation present in the wall of the mosque which marks the direction of the qiblah, the direction that should be faced by a Muslim in prayer. It was only later that the floor plan became square. Early mosques did not have minarets, as long as there was a high point from which to call people to prayer. The minaret design may have been inspired by the towers of Byzantine buildings. We were later to observe the marked similarities between these mihrabs and some of the more ornate altars within the sanctuaries of the Syrian Orthodox churches which we visited and in which we worshipped during the second part of our pilgrimage.

As we left Erzurum on our coach we glimpsed through the gaps between the shops and houses the Medieval Citadel Fortress high on its hill in the center of town. It is thought that this was built during the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Theodosius around the 5^th Century AD. Guide books tell us that there is a very good view to be had from the clock tower of the city’s landmarks including the Medrese and the Ulu Cami. Some also say that the clock in the tower was made in Croydon, England, and was a gift from Queen Victoria to the Ottoman Sultan in 1877. But I understand that the tower is now closed to visitors and with a long journey ahead and much more to see today we chose to drive on.

A Pilgrimage to Syriac and Armenian Christianity in Eastern Turkey

Istanbul is in a unique location geographically, bridging Europe with Asia. Not only that, it is centrally located on the historic Silk Road and has served to meaningfully connect very different civilizations and cultures over millennia. 

We were coming to Turkey at the time of the Islamic Feast of Sacrifice, an important annual occasion for Muslims, symbolizing the obedience of Abraham to God and the submission of Ishmael. We were to experience this holiday festival first hand much later in our travels when we arrived in Tur Abdin. Whilst the idea of such animal sacrifice now seems anathema to the Western Christian, there are more similarities between Christianity and Islam than many realize. For a start they are both Abrahamic faiths, sharing the same God, although some would claim that Islam is merely a heretical form of Christianity. Then again some Muslims claim that the Christians are heretical in their Trinitarian approach to God, in Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therein lie tensions and intolerances rather than the building of respect and understanding.

It wasn’t until I read William Dalrymple’s From the Holy Mountain that I realized the profound kinship of Christianity and Islam, the close affinities between these two religions, how the Islamic culture was forged in the Eastern homelands of Christianity. 

Christianity was after all and first of all an oriental faith. We forget this in the West with our current demonization of Islam and the threat of Muslim fundamentalism. When Dalrymple underwent the travels which formed the basis of his book, in the late 1990’s, the Eastern Christians were fleeing to safer countries in the face of persecution and hostility from the Islamic establishment. Now the future looks a little more secure for Christians in this part of the world.


We were here as a small group from our Anglican Diocese, our intent to make a pilgrimage first to the abandoned ruins of Armenian Christianity in the North East of Turkey, then to experience at first hand the flourishing Syriac Church of the Tur Abdin region of South East Turkey, now showing signs of dynamic growth after decades of persecution and sad decline. 

I hoped that I for one would understand much more clearly by the end of the pilgrimage the dynamics and history of the two greatest religions of the world, from the places we were to visit.

As we flew from Istanbul eastwards to Erzurum the seemingly vast empty countryside and dark mountain ranges soon became hidden from view by white fluffy meringue clouds scudding by below us; the clear blue sky above gave little hint of the cold that was to confront us on touch down. As we neared Erzurum and came once more below the clouds there was a patchwork quilt of fields spread out below us, in all shades of green and brown, and for the first time in Turkey we could see snow dusting the distant mountain tops. The temperature when we left London was 16.5C. It was now 9C, and worse was to come. I was glad I’d packed some thick warm cardigans but they were deep in my suitcase. Gulgun met us at the airport. She was to be our able guide for the next nine days, with Mustafa our driver behind the wheel of the comfortable and spacious coach we now boarded and which was to accompany us throughout the trip.
Over the course of the next few days and weeks I shall be telling the complete and fully illustrated story of our pilgrimage.. 
Do join me on my journey and I welcome comments as long as they follow normal rules of decency...

The photo by the way is the view from our first ski resort hotel room near Erzurum looking out to the ski slopes waiting for their first snow...