In a bid to join EU, Turkey allows Mass at Christian monastery

At least 1,500 pilgrims, including from Greece and Russia, traveled to the Byzantine-era monastery of Sumela in Trabzon, modern northeastern Turkey, for the service led on Sunday by Patriarch Bartholomew I, the spiritual leader of the world's Orthodox Christians, the Associated Press reported.

"After 88 years, the tears of the Virgin Mary have stopped flowing," said Patriarch Bartholomew I during the service.

The Islamic-oriented government, which is aiming to expand freedoms as part of its bid to join the European Union, has said worship can take place at the monastery once a year, according to the agency.

Sumela was abandoned around the time of Turkey's foundation in 1923. The last Mass was held a year earlier amid conflict between Turks and Greeks. Several tens of thousands of Pontian Greeks were massacred by Turks in 1920-1922s or died as they went into forced exodus.

Greece says 350,000 people were killed and describes those massacres as Genocide, though Turkey up to now has been rejecting own crimes committed in the first and second decades of the 20th century.