By Ioannis Neonakis
These last few days, we have been watching what is brewing in the Middle East with awe. With awe and possibly a secret anxiousness, hoping the conflict does not expand, that the problems do not spill to our own lands. However, while the conflict is confined there, we consider it something foreign, we believe it does not concern us, that it does not involve us. And yet, we are deeply wrong. Not only does it concern us greatly, but we are in the midst of these events. Because there live our forgotten brothers, the two million Rum Orthodox Christians (Romee) of the Middle East.
Indeed. Two million Orthodox Romee in the Middle East, and many more millions in the diaspora. What are all of them? They are the very same as us, they have the same history, they belong to the same civilization, they have the same historic capital, the same faith, the same customs, the same ancestors, the same heroes, the same saints, the same present and the same future, and they have been revealed the same luminous, soteriological, eschatological path. We are the same collective, the same Genos (sic). All of us, we are the Pious Genos of the Romee.
Greek cities in Syria and the general area are already mentioned in the 7th century B.C. However, the real spread of the Greek language in the area, and especially of the Greek civilization, will happen after the years of Alexander the Great and the Seleucid dynasty, when tens of Greek cities are being built. Under Seleucus I Nicator the city of Antioch on the Orontes will be established, with the first settlers being mainly Athenians and Macedonians. Antioch will be a cradle for the Greek civilization, and later for Christianity, while the whole area will be a central pylon of Romania (the misnamed Byzantine Empire) for hundreds of years. Many scholars and great intellectuals and artists, as well as a multitude of saints, will arise here. We will mention Luke the Evangelist, Saint John Chrysostom, Saint Ephrem the Syrian, Abba Isaac the Syrian, and many others.
In 636, the Muslims, under the second Caliph Umar, will conquer the area. Throughout the centuries, and under continuous Muslim occupation, a part of the Romee will convert to Islam and another part will convert to Catholicism, under the pressure of an incredibly strong Vatican penetration into the area. However, another part, despite the hardships the centuries brought, will remain steadfast in its traditions and will reach the current age, proudly declaring that they’re Romee Orthodox (Rum Orthodox). And this part of the population today counts two million citizens of Syria, Lebanon, and the general area. That is amazing and the fact that these people endured 14 centuries, while also producing great people like Saint John of Damascus, highlights the strength of faith these people possess.
The Pious Genos of the Romans of New Rome/Constantinople, the Pious Genos of the Romee was progressively formed in the context of the Roman Empire as a mixing of three traditions: the Greek cultural foundation, the Roman state framework and perception, and the Jewish Old-Testament historical course and perspective. A unifying catalyst and creative reformer of these was the light of the historical presence of Jesus Christ in the world, the freedom of the “relationship of the persons” and the inauguration of the theanthropic ontology by him. Mankind, finally free from the shackles of death, reexamines and gives a new meaning to its existence as the ecumenical People of God in its historic course from the memory of ages past to the eschatological, ever bright, experienced, and seen Grace. The past, current, and future friends of the initially incorporeal and then incarnated Christ have the perception and self-consciousness of the creation of a historical, unified body, of the People of God, with a common political and spiritual guidance, which is heading towards its eschatological perspective. The giving of meaning and the enlightenment of the personal and the collective existence under this future was and is sanctifying and total/catholic, offering hope, en-thu-siasm, joy, and support even in the hardest personal, social, and state circumstances.
However, on the 19th century, ethnocentrism, as an axis of the then blooming modernity will be deceitfully imposed on the things of our East as well, creating a fracturing of the Genos, firstly spiritual, and then in the sense of the state. A collective alienation of the ethnic groups and the creation of small states, guided chess pieces on the international geopolitical chess board, and often acting against each other. The externally imposed ethnocentrism and its accompanying value system led and still leads us to internal conflicts, conflicts with our own traditional system of values, creating a complete disorientation, lack of direction, unsteadiness, and annihilation.
In a social and state level in our country, especially after our repeated defeats (Asia Minor Catastrophe, Cyprus, bankruptcy, framework of serfdom), the state of dissolution keeps getting worse, with a lack of social coherency, the inability to form strategy and objectives meaningfully. Our collective on the edge of historical annihilation. A simple satellite of the West, and specifically a West that’s teetering under the weight of its own internal cultural degeneration and erosion. Instead of us Romee, as a unified collective, offering suggestions and a soteriological model and paradigm to the whole world, we were led to the fracturing, deletion, and our ante portas spiritual and historical annihilation.
In order to be able to not only stand on our two feet but also to fulfil our historical duty to ourselves and humanity, we first need to become conscious of our identity, of our uniqueness as a Romee collective, and the objective of our contribution to the history of humanity, the objective that our tradition predicted and for which it prepares us. And a fundamental condition for our march, for our path, is the unity of all the Romee people, with the starting point being our country. All of the Romee people. All the Romeiko. And the Romee of the Middle East is an integral part of the Romee world.
Our brothers, our distinguished brothers, we do not forget you, you are in our hearts, a part of our identities and our very selves, and we will do everything we can to stand at your side. You are very important to us. Your very existence opens up new possibilities for us, an opening and a widening in our ecumenical perspective. Not only because your existence reinforces the historical continuity and cohesiveness of our Genos and our self-recognition as a single, unified historical body; not only because your existence modifies and transforms our relationships as a collective with multiple other collectives and peoples; not only because your existence clearly highlights our multiple historical rights that de facto come into the forefront; but above all because your existence also changes our total way of understanding and perceiving the things of the ecumene, giving meaning to a luminous historical perspective and direction towards the eschaton.
Have courage, then, have courage, People of God! We are many. And not only are we many, but above all, we know that we are on the side of the final victor. As real Romeiki hearts in the joy of giving meaning and of our fighting, let us all together sing and chant like Saint John of Damascus centuries ago, of the ever-bright feast of “Everything has been flooded by light, the sky and the earth and the dark depths; all of Creation celebrates the Resurrection of Christ, in which it is affixed.”