From the
newspaper article by Prof. Dr. İlber Ortaylı
……
Two
documentary film maker, one or two well intentioned amateur diver who found a
couple of professional divers in an attempt of having some credibility, giving
lecture on TV. They are
on pursuit of the 1700 year old secrets and legends. Oh my! . In the
exploration of 283 m long tunnels of Hagia Sophia they found the remains and
mosaics belonging to the child king Antiegenos and Patric Athanasius (!). I am
in awe; we have even turned upside down the Christian hagiography. No need for
the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Leave
that alone, the Ministery of Culture was oblivious to our warnings: “Before
building public toilets, let us construct the maps and measurements of cisterns
and tunnels between Hagia Sophia, Binbir Direk and Topkapı.” Despite all these, the measurements of the length of
thegalleries of Hagia Sophia by these people is a sheer surprise.
Pseudo Research Smelling Marketing
The
research led by Dr. Çiğdem Özkan Aygün form İstanbul Technical University and
her team used to be first permitted and then hampered by the Ministery. I am a
witness at first hand. I do not know if these mentioned pseudo researchers are
involved in this situation but according to their allegations research is
conducted by themselves. They also own the findings of Feridun Dirimtekin the
manager of the museum in 1940’s. (It seems the universities first will have to
get their permission). We understood better the professionalism of Mrs. Aygün
and her team in the Topkapı cisterns and
galleries survey (her findings are also published
internationally). Their sole purpose is to determine the physical konum of the
galleries and cisterns and produce their maps.
These above
mentioned gentlemen are different though. According
to Hürriyet’ Sunday paper they are posing in photos with scuba tanks which are
too big to enter the tunnels. They also found English soldiers canteens. To me
their discourse of “look what we have found among many other secrets to be
discovered”, is not convincing at all. I do not intend to discuss the fiscal
goals of these pseudo researchers but I believe that such claims over the monument
must be to the every one’s concern.
