ISTANBUL // When Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of 300 million Orthodox Christians around the world, recently addressed hundreds of followers in an open-air mass in the ruins of an old monastery in north-eastern Turkey, it was not only a spiritual event, but a political one as well.
"I feel very proud and happy to be here and to conduct this mass," Bartholomew, the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, said during the service on August 15 in the monastery of Sumela, set spectacularly in a cliff about 50km south of the city of Trabzon on Turkey's Black Sea coast. "After 88 years, the tears of the Virgin Mary have stopped flowing." The service in Sumela and an Armenian mass planned for September in south-eastern Anatolia are seen as strong political gestures by the government in Ankara towards the small Christian communities, who feel under pressure in this overwhelmingly Muslim, but secular, country.
Bartholomew's mass at Sumela was an effort by the state "to refute scepticism concerning the sincerity of the democratic and humanitarian 'signals of opening' in Turkey", Dositheos Anagnostopoulos, the patriarch's spokesman, wrote in an e-mail. Sumela, whose history dates to the fourth century, used to be one of the most important places of pilgrimage for Christians in Anatolia, but it was turned into a museum after the Greeks in the region were driven out during a war between Turkey and Greece in the 1920s.
The mass, marking the feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and attended by about 2,000 Christians from Turkey, Greece, Russia and Georgia, was the first religious service to be held in the monastery since 1922. As the monastery square could only hold several hundred guests, others watched on large television screens nearby. From now on, there will be a mass every year at the monastery, a local official said.
Ozan Ceyhun, a Turkish-born German politician who works as a consultant for companies doing business in Turkey, said the approval of the church service was no coincidence because the government in Ankara is keenly aware of how much its standing in the international arena depends on the way Christians are treated here.
"Turkey's image abroad is closely connected to questions of how the church does," Mr Ceyhun said in a telephone interview from the southern city of Adana. Government ministers in Ankara "see that steps like [allowing the mass at Sumela] are welcomed abroad".
Turkish nationalists said the mass was a tool used by Orthodox Christians to resurrect dreams of a Greek republic in the region, thereby threatening Turkey's national unity, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the prime minister, dismissed those fears. "What happened? They came, celebrated mass and went home again," Mr Erdogan said during an iftar in the south-eastern city of Gaziantep.
Mr Erdogan, a pious Muslim accused by his opponents of following a secret Islamist agenda, said allowing the church service to go on was good for Turkey, both domestically and internationally. "What did we lose? We have gained something, really. If you trust religion, you do not fear religious freedom. If you trust ideas and thought, you do not fear freedom of expression."
The prime minister added that allowing Turkey's small Greek Orthodox community, estimated to number 2,000 to 3,000, to hold the mass in Sumela, also strengthened the country's standing in the world and its position when dealing with issues of religious freedom with Greece.
Referring to Turkey's demand that Greece build a mosque in its capital, Athens, Mr Erdogan said that more freedom for Christians in Turkey made the Turkish position more credible. "I am one step ahead," he said.
George Papandreou, Greece's prime minister, welcomed the mass at Sumela as a "historic and important event". It was a sign of bilateral rapprochement with Turkey and reflected "a spirit of co-operation and peace between us and our neighbour".
Mr Erdogan's government has also granted Turkey's Armenians permission to hold a religious service on September 19 in an old Armenian church, recently restored by the state, on Akdamar, an island in Lake Van in south-eastern Anatolia.
The event has triggered excitement among Turkey's estimated 80,000 Armenian Christians and is seen as a gesture of reconciliation by the state. Up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed in massacres and death marches during the final years of the Ottoman Empire during the First World War. Armenia and many international scholars say the deaths constituted genocide, a term Ankara rejects.
Mr Ceyhun said Turkish ministers also favoured opening an ancient church in Tarsus in southern Turkey, the birthplace of the apostle Paul, one of the most important figures in early Christianity, for religious services. "Erdogan himself is very open and flexible in this respect, but there are people within the bureaucracy that take a different view."
One of the most difficult problems is that of a seminary for Greek Orthodox priests on Heybeliada, an island in the Sea of Marmara close to Istanbul. Because the school has been closed since the early 1970s, the Orthodox clergy in what once was Constantinople is in danger of dying out. The Erdogan government has said it is in favour of reopening the school, but secular groups fear that such a step would lead to the opening of Islamic schools as well.
@Email:tseibert@thenational.ae
Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
THE LIGHT
Director: Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tala Al Deen, Nicolette Krebitz, Lars Eidinger
Rating: 3/5
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
THE SPECS
Engine: 1.5-litre
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Power: 110 horsepower
Torque: 147Nm
Price: From Dh59,700
On sale: now
hall of shame
SUNDERLAND 2002-03
No one has ended a Premier League season quite like Sunderland. They lost each of their final 15 games, taking no points after January. They ended up with 19 in total, sacking managers Peter Reid and Howard Wilkinson and losing 3-1 to Charlton when they scored three own goals in eight minutes.
SUNDERLAND 2005-06
Until Derby came along, Sunderland’s total of 15 points was the Premier League’s record low. They made it until May and their final home game before winning at the Stadium of Light while they lost a joint record 29 of their 38 league games.
HUDDERSFIELD 2018-19
Joined Derby as the only team to be relegated in March. No striker scored until January, while only two players got more assists than goalkeeper Jonas Lossl. The mid-season appointment Jan Siewert was to end his time as Huddersfield manager with a 5.3 per cent win rate.
ASTON VILLA 2015-16
Perhaps the most inexplicably bad season, considering they signed Idrissa Gueye and Adama Traore and still only got 17 points. Villa won their first league game, but none of the next 19. They ended an abominable campaign by taking one point from the last 39 available.
FULHAM 2018-19
Terrible in different ways. Fulham’s total of 26 points is not among the lowest ever but they contrived to get relegated after spending over £100 million (Dh457m) in the transfer market. Much of it went on defenders but they only kept two clean sheets in their first 33 games.
LA LIGA: Sporting Gijon, 13 points in 1997-98.
BUNDESLIGA: Tasmania Berlin, 10 points in 1965-66
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
THE BIO
Bio Box
Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul
Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader
Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Favorite food: seafood
Favorite place to travel: Lebanon
Favorite movie: Braveheart
Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
The bio
Studied up to grade 12 in Vatanappally, a village in India’s southern Thrissur district
Was a middle distance state athletics champion in school
Enjoys driving to Fujairah and Ras Al Khaimah with family
His dream is to continue working as a social worker and help people
Has seven diaries in which he has jotted down notes about his work and money he earned
Keeps the diaries in his car to remember his journey in the Emirates
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Jawan
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RESULTS
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