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Foundations: The Orthodox Church and the Ottoman Empire
STRATFOR analyst Lauren Goodrich discusses how the period of Ottoman rule shaped
the culture and traditions of the Orthodox Church beyond Russian borders. (TRT 2:56)
Note: The following document is a transcript of a recorded interview. It has
been formatted with subheads for the benefit of readers, but the content is
a faithful reproduction of the speaker’s diction and grammar.
After the great schism between the Catholic and the Orthodox Church, there was a
massive upheaval across Europe, which didn’t solidify the actual difference between the
two churches until the Roman Catholic church sacked Constantinople in the 4th Crusade.
(Possible cut here) There were many attempts to unify the churches, both in the 13th and
the 15th century, but they all failed. They failed because the Orthodox simply didn’t want
to change back, and they failed also because you had a new force ruling part of Europe,
which were the Ottomans.
What’s interesting is that the Ottoman Empire dominated the majority of the Orthodox –
they were in control of the Balkans, they were in control of central and parts of Eastern
Europe. The main Orthodox community that was left outside Ottoman control were the
Kievians, meaning the Russians and the Ukrainians.
The Ottoman Influence and Kievian Rus
The development of the Orthodox Church inside the Ottoman Empire was very different
than that inside the Moscow patriarchy, because the Orthodox Churches became very
distinct cultural communities.
It added a lot of Islamic influence into those specific Orthodox churches – the Greek
Orthodox, Serbian Orthodox, Bulgarian Orthodox. Orthodoxy is flexible enough that it
can allow for cultural differences. This is why you can have pretty decently sized
Orthodox communities in other parts of the world, such as Lebanon, Syria, and other
various Middle Eastern states.
It also kept it more of a more religious church, vs. the one that happened in Kievian Rus,
which was more a state church.
Officially, there was a split between Constantinople and the Kievian–centered Orthodox
Church, meaning Moscow, in the 15th century. That carried through the Ottoman period
and then into even the Soviet period, of having two distinct types of Orthodox churches
overseeing many smaller Orthodox churches.
Continuing Tensions on the East-West Frontier
There wasn’t much warfare between the Orthodox and the Catholics except, save the 4th
crusade. (RESTATE FOR AUDIO CLARITY, and transition HELPFUL HERE) The 4th
crusade was supposed to be the Catholic Church going to go march on Islam. Instead they
deviated – they went to Constantinople and sacked Constantinople, which officially
ended any possible reunification between the two churches.
Tensions with, between Orthodox and Catholics naturally still exist. The Balkans is the
greatest example -- especially in areas, say, like Bosnia, where you have very strong
Catholic Croat communities and Serbian Orthodox communities. This has been a
contributing factor of course in the Balkan wars.
Another rivalry that still exists today between the Catholics and the Orthodox is naturally
between Moscow and Rome still. There’s been a lot of back and forth on whether there
should be any peace between the two churches, because the Russian Orthodox are still
very resentful of the Catholic Church. They believe the Catholic Church was one of the
churches that really tried to infiltrate the Communist bloc and convert them to proWesternism. The Orthodox churches within eastern and central Europe and Russians are
very mistrustful still of the Catholic Church as a whole.