The Shepherd, January 2010
CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY
ZENIT News Agency issued a report from Rome on 20th December, about the plight of the Christian minority in Turkey. Among other things it states: “Early in December, three Muslims entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Reverend Yusuf Akbulut, according to a Dec. 15 report by Compass Direct News, an agency specializing in reporting on religious persecution. They told the priest that unless the bell tower was destroyed in one week, they would kill him. The Muslims were apparently acting in reaction to the recent referendum in Switzerland, which banned the construction of new minarets for mosques.… Meryem Ana is more than 250 years old and is one of a handful of churches that serve the Syriac community in Turkey.… The year had started badly, with a land dispute involving one of the world’s oldest Christian monasteries, reported Reuters, Jan. 21. The fifth-century Syriac monastery Mor Gabriel is located in Midyat, a village near the border with Syria.… Problems began when Turkish government officials redrew the boundaries around Mor Gabriel and the surrounding villages in 2008 as part of work to update a land registry. According to the monks, the new boundaries take away from them large plots of land the monastery has owned for centuries. It also designates part of the monastery’s land as public forest. According to Reuters, there were 250,000 Syriacs when Ataturk founded Turkey after World War I. Today they number only 20,000, with many having left the country to escape persecution.… The monastery’s Bishop Timotheus Samuel Aktas presides over a dwindling community, made up of only 3 monks & 14 nuns. Locally, there are around 3,000 Syriacs. The monastery, founded in 397, has a great symbolic importance, the article explained and is considered by Syriacs to be a sort of ‘second Jerusalem.’” After citing other individual cases of harassment and persecution, the report continues: “Then, on Dec. 4 Compass Direct News published a report on a survey that showed more than half of the population of Turkey opposes members of other religions holding meetings or publishing materials to explain their faith. The survey also found that almost 40% of the population of Turkey said they had “very negative” or “negative” views of Christians. The survey, carried out in 2008, was part of a study commissioned by the International Social Survey Program, a 45-nation academic group that conducts polls and research about social and political issues. Forum 18, a Norwegian-based human rights group, published on Nov. 27 a survey of religious freedom in Turkey. The group takes its name from Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which declares that everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Overall, the study concluded: “that the country continues to see serious violations of international human rights standards on freedom of religion or belief.” Turkey has not given recognition to religious communities in their own right as independent communities with full legal status - such as the right to own places of worship and the legal protection religious communities normally have in states under the rule of law, according to Forum 18. Moreover, the survey observed that Christians have been the object of a series of violent attacks and murders in recent years. The government, the study explained, remains committed to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk’s “secularism.” This involves not only state control of Islam, but also restrictions on the ability of non-Muslims and Muslims outside state control to exercise freedom of religion or belief. Communities as diverse as Alevi Muslims, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Protestants, and the Syrian Orthodox Church have seen no significant progress in resolving property problems, the study added.… It is virtually impossible to find people from non-Muslim backgrounds in high-level civil servant positions and impossible in senior ranks in the military, the study continued. Forum 18 listed a number of deadly attacks on Christians in recent years: The murder of Fr Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest in 2006; the killing of two ethnic Turkish Protestants, Necati Aydin & Ugur Yuksel, and a German, Tilmann Geske in Malatya in 2007. Then, in July 2009 a Catholic German businessman engaged to an ethnic Turk, Gregor Kerkeling, was murdered by a mentally disturbed young man for being a Christian. Among the causes of this intolerance the study cited the habitual disinformation & defamation against Christians, both in public discourse as well as in the media. As well, intolerance is actively promoted within the school curriculum. The report concluded by saying that the serious problems with the lack of religious freedom in Turkey casts serious doubts about whether the country is really committed to universal human rights for all.”
During a recent visit to the United Sates, in a television interview, His All-Holiness the Œcumenical Patriarch, Bartholomeos I, also complained of the situation in his native Turkey: “‘We are treated as citizens of second class,’ he said. When the Patriarch was asked why his church and the remaining followers did not leave Turkey for Greece, his answer drew even more controversy, making headlines all over the Turkey. ‘This is the continuation of Jerusalem and for us it is equally holy and sacred land. We prefer to stay here, even crucified sometimes,’ he said. ‘In the gospel it is written that it is given to us not only to believe in Christ, but also suffer for Christ.’ While the Greek foreign ministry issued a statement supporting the patriarch, his comment shocked the Turkish government, who saw him as a supporter. Turkish foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu was quick to condemn the Patriarch. He said that he regards the use of the word crucifixion extremely unfortunate.”
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