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  • F18News Summary: Russia; Turkey;

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ========================================== =======

    23 November 2009
    RUSSIA: PROPOSED MISSIONARY RESTRICTIONS - A PAPER TIGER?
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=1378
    Justice Ministry proposed amendments to the 1997 Religion Law and the
    Administrative Violations Code imposing draconian controls on religious
    activity have provoked protest from religious communities and have now been
    removed from the Ministry's website. Andrei Sebentsov, secretary of the
    government's Commission for Issues Concerning Religious Associations, told
    Forum 18 News Service that the parliamentary Religion Committee has refused
    to consider the proposals, leading the Ministry to approach the
    parliamentary Security Committee. He says the proposed draft is "so clearly
    against the demands of the Constitution that the presidential
    administration would hardly support it." Yet Muslims, Old Believers,
    Protestants and some Russian Orthodox remain concerned. The draft echoes
    proposals the Ministry made unsuccessfully in 2006, but Vitali Vlasenko of
    the Baptist Union believes the threat of their adoption is now greater,
    since "society is scared by religious extremism".


    27 November 2009
    TURKEY: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SURVEY, NOVEMBER 2009
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =1379
    Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council May 2010 Universal Periodic Review of
    Turkey, Forum 18 News Service has found that the country continues to see
    serious violations of international human rights standards on freedom of
    religion or belief. A long-standing crucially important issue, with many
    implications, is that Turkey has not legally recognised 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. Additionally, the most dangerous threat to individuals exercising
    freedom of religion or belief has been a series of violent attacks and
    murders on those perceived as threats; in recent years the victims have
    been Christians. Turkish citizens have argued to Forum 18 that the
    protection of the right of all to freedom of religion or belief, as laid
    down in the international human rights standards which Turkey is party to,
    should be the standard used by the authorities in all affected fields. They
    also argue that the authorities act against the intolerance fuelling
    violent attacks and murders.
    * See full article below. *


    27 November 2009
    TURKEY: RELIGIOUS FREEDOM SURVEY, NOVEMBER 2009

    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_i d=1379
    By Dr. Otmar Oehring, Head of the Human Rights Office of Missio
    <http://www.missio.de>, and
    Güzide Ceyhan

    Ahead of the UN Human Rights Council May 2010 Universal Periodic Review of
    Turkey, Forum 18 News Service has found that the country continues to see
    serious violations of international human rights standards on freedom of
    religion or belief. The single most important and the most long-standing
    issue is the fact that - despite undertaking to do so in the 1923 Lausanne
    Treaty - Turkey has not legally recognised non-Muslim 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. This problem
    faces all religious communities in Turkey, including those which were not
    present in 1923. Even the majority Sunni Islamic community is not
    recognised in this way, instead being under the control of the Diyanet, or
    Presidency of Religious Affairs, which reports directly to the Prime
    Minister. Additionally, the most dangerous threat to individuals exercising
    freedom of religion or belief has been a series of violent attacks and
    murders on those perceived as threats. In recent years the victims have
    been Christians.

    Turkey straddles Europe and Asia and has a population of over 72 million,
    about three-quarters of them ethnic Turks. The next largest ethnic group
    are the Kurds, with smaller numbers of ethnic Arabs, Circassians,
    Armenians, Laz, Georgians, Greeks, Jews and others. An estimated 99 per
    cent of the population are of a Muslim background, mainly Sunnis, with 20
    to 30 per cent of the population being Alevis, and very small numbers of
    Shias. The largest non-Muslim religious community are Christians, with the
    Armenian Apostolic being the largest church followed by Syrian Orthodox,
    Greek Orthodox, Catholics of various rites and Protestants. Baha'is and
    Jehovah's Witnesses are present in smaller numbers - in the case of Baha'is
    around 10,000.

    Political background

    The "deep state" - military, security, bureaucracy and elite
    representatives - have been unhappy with the rise of the ruling AKP party.
    The deep state remains wedded to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's "secularism" as
    they understand it. This entails overt state control of Islam through the
    Diyanet, which reports directly to the Prime Minister, and enshrines
    serious restrictions on the ability of non-Muslims and Muslims outside
    state control to exercise freedom of religion or belief. It is difficult to
    reconcile with the Constitution's statement that the Republic is a secular
    state, as this "secularism" gives state-run Sunni Islam rights which no
    other group enjoys. It also imposes controls on state-run Sunni Islam
    imposed on no other group, such as on the content of sermons. The Diyanet
    is funded with tax collected from all citizens, regardless of their
    religion or belief, and supports tax exemptions for the only mosques
    permitted (those controlled by the Diyanet) and employs and pays the
    salaries of their imams. No other faith, or indeed non-state-controlled
    Muslim group, is permitted to train its clergy in Turkey.

    Among the other problems flowing from the state definition of "secularism"
    are continuing and long-standing problems caused by the ban on religious
    communities' themselves owning property. Communities as diverse as Alevi
    Muslims, Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Protestants, and the Syrian Orthodox
    Church have seen no significant progress in resolving property problems.
    Examples include no progress on recognising Alevi Muslim cem houses as
    places of worship and continuing vexatious legal cases aimed at depriving
    the Mor Gabriel Syrian Orthodox Monastery in south-eastern Turkey of its
    land.

    As non-Muslim communities are under threat of violent attacks, the
    Interior Ministry issued a circular in June 2007 asking law enforcement
    forces to protect non-Muslim places of worship, and be watchful for plans
    to attack them. A number of plans to mount attacks were subsequently
    uncovered and prevented, for instance a plot to kill the pastor of a church
    in Antalya. However, this step, although welcome, addresses only the
    symptoms of intolerance, not the root causes.

    Official protection for religious leaders, such as the Ecumenical
    Patriarch, is widely seen by these communities as being designed as much to
    control as to protect them. Suspicion of the authorities' intentions
    remains. Alevi Muslims broke off formal talks with the government over
    denial of their rights, expressing frustration at the lack of concrete
    progress in enabling them to exercise their religious freedom. Informal
    workshops involving representatives of the Alevis, the Diyanet and others
    continue. An August 2009 lunch meeting between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
    Erdogan and religious leaders, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew,
    was followed by a visit to two Greek Orthodox sites. But no concrete
    improvements ensued in their ability to exercise freedom of religion or
    belief.

    The rule of law

    The Mor Gabriel cases - which started after state officials unilaterally
    redrew land boundaries - highlight problems around the rule of law and how
    society does or does not understand this, which has a serious impact on
    freedom of religion or belief. Another trial drifting on with no sign of a
    verdict is of two Turkish Protestants, Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal. They
    are on trial for "insulting Turkishness" and defamation of Islam, following
    their involvement in a Bible correspondence course in October 2006. The
    trial in Malatya of the five men accused of murdering three Protestant
    Christians in 2007 has drifted on since its start in November 2007. In 2009
    police have avoided bringing witnesses to court on various occasions, and
    no verdict appears imminent. Hopes that impunity for those who attack
    Christians would be over remain disappointed.

    Two recent victories in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) - by the
    Ecumenical Patriarchate in 2008 and a Greek Orthodox Foundation in 2009 -
    have still not led to the recovery of confiscated property. The ECHR
    appears to be the only realistic hope of implementing in law some very
    important aspects of the right to exercise freedom of religion or belief -
    provided its judgments are implemented.

    Violent attacks and murders

    The Armenian, Greek and Alevi communities have in the past been subject to
    mass pogroms and violent attacks that have resulted in migration of these
    communities inside and outside of Turkey. There have also been in the past
    murders of individuals for their beliefs, such as of the atheist and former
    imam Turan Dursan in 1990. However, a recent series of murders has drawn
    attention to the continuing need to address the problem of the murderous
    intolerance of sections of Turkish society. These murders were of: Fr
    Andrea Santoro, a Catholic priest in 2006; the Armenian Turkish journalist
    Hrant Dink in 2007; and of two ethnic Turkish Protestants, Necati Aydin and
    Ugur Yuksel, and a German, Tilmann Geske in Malatya in 2007. 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.

    In August 2009 Turkish Protestant Ismail Aydin, who works for an
    association spreading knowledge about Christianity, was taken hostage at
    knifepoint. The young man responsible claimed that "this missionary dog is
    trying to divide the country" and wrapped a Turkish flag around Aydin's
    head. He was seen on TV reports telling his captor that "this flag is mine
    as well! I'm a Turk too, but I'm a Christian." His captor responded that
    "you have betrayed the Turkish flag and country". The police rescued Aydin
    and the attacker is being prosecuted. But the incident highlighted again
    the dangerous unwillingness of many within Turkey to accept that there are
    many ways to be a Turk.

    What fuels violent attacks and murders?

    Factors which encourage violence include; disinformation by public figures
    and the mass media; the rise of Turkish nationalism; and the
    marginalisation of smaller groups within society. All three trends feed off
    each other, and all of Turkey's smaller religious or belief communities -
    those within Islam and Christianity, as well as Baha'is, Jehovah's
    Witnesses, atheists and agnostics - are affected by them. There has been
    disinformation and defamation against Christians, in particular against
    Protestants who share their beliefs with others in public discourse as well
    as in the media.

    A day after the Malatya murders, Niyazi Güney, a senior Justice Ministry
    official, told Turkish parliamentarians that "missionary work is even more
    dangerous than terrorism and unfortunately is not considered a crime in
    Turkey". He repeated this in Milliyet newspaper. Terrorism and missionary
    activity are thus presented as connected. Almost any manifestation of
    Christian belief - including meetings in churches - is seen by those who
    hold these views as "missionary activity".

    Missionary activity has been on the agenda of the National Security
    Council (MGK), which is chaired ex officio by the President and also
    comprises the Chief of the General Staff, the commanders of all the
    branches of the Turkish Armed Forces and several government ministers. In a
    February 2005 evaluation of current and future challenges to Turkish
    security, the MGK drew attention to "a need for social activities that will
    prevent the spreading of organisations and ideologies that will have an
    impact on Turkey's unity". It suggested that "abusive missionary activities
    should not be permitted". What exactly was meant by "abusive missionary
    activity" was not defined.

    The Turkish phrase used for missionary activity in official discussions
    and formal papers, as well as by the xenophobic and nationalist parts of
    society, has extremely negative connotations. "Misyonerlik faaliyetleri"
    can be translated into English as missionary activities, which does not
    convey either a positive or a negative evaluation of the activities. But
    "misyonerlik faaliyetleri" has in Turkish the connotations of missionary
    scheming, plotting and intrigues. Both words have negative connotations in
    Turkish, and used together as one phrase convey a double negative
    connotation.

    "Missionary" conferences propagating such views continue to be held by the
    Diyanet in provinces and townships using state facilities. Similar
    activities are also conducted by the military and the Gendarmerie
    (Jandarma) to "enlighten" their personnel - including conscripts - about
    what they see as "missionary activities".

    Associated with this is intolerance promoted within the school curriculum
    (see below).

    The intolerance in society towards non-Muslims also extends to atheists,
    who cannot openly identify or organise themselves in Turkey.

    Ergenekon and the "deep state"

    The trial which began in 2007 of influential people - from the police,
    army, bureaucracy, business, politics and the mass media - alleged to be
    part of an ultra-nationalist group, Ergenekon, has revealed strong and
    widespread opposition among them to freedom of religion or belief.
    Ergenekon members are alleged to have maintained deathlists of people,
    including Christians with a missionary background. The Malatya murder trial
    is revealing plausible links between the "deep state" and the murders,
    Turkish media noting that a link between the murders and the Gendarmerie
    seems obvious. The Gendarmerie, it seems, knew in advance of the murders
    and did not take steps to prevent them. Also according to the media, Fr
    Andrea Santoro and his church were under surveillance by the National
    Intelligence Organisation (MIT) secret police on the very day of his
    murder.

    The media has featured documents discovered in the Ergenekon investigation
    proving that the Gendarmerie actively monitored missionary activities in
    the Malatya region through informers, before and after the Malatya murders.
    It should be noted that the activities being monitored were lawful acts of
    teaching and promoting one's beliefs. Unlawful disinformation or defamatory
    practices limiting lawful enjoyment of human rights do not appear to have
    been monitored or acted against.

    Media intolerance

    Protestant Turks have noted a significant decline in numbers of violent
    attacks directed at their churches and religious leaders in 2009. This is
    possibly due to a decline since 2007 in defamatory mainstream media
    coverage of them. For example, a widely viewed national TV channel, ATV,
    has stopped broadcasting reports of "illegal" churches, or Turks converting
    to Christianity.

    However, intolerant reporting and commentary continues in local and
    ultra-nationalist newspapers, as well as on websites and blogs. One local
    news website, Ilgazetesi, featured an article on 17 June 2009, entitled
    "Local Missionaries", stating that "The primary goal of missionary activity
    is to break the resistance of the people to imperialism and abuse! Making
    them Jewish or Christian is the second goal." The continuing intolerant
    mind-set of many is fuelled by such irresponsible media reports, and makes
    members of vulnerable groups fear that violence against them could escalate
    again.

    No legal status as religious communities

    Full legal recognition of all religious communities would be a major step
    forward in both achieving freedom of religion or belief as understood in
    the human rights standards Turkey has ratified, as well as addressing the
    prejudice that non-Muslim religious communities are "foreign" and not
    genuinely Turkish. At present, religious communities which existed in the
    Ottoman Empire operate legally under an archaic system of imperial decrees
    and regulations that deny them full legal status as religious communities
    and restrict their freedom to function. Communities which did not have a
    recognised existence before the Turkish Republic was founded in 1923 have
    little hope of gaining any kind of recognised status in law. Articles 37-45
    of the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, on "Protection of Minorities", should have led
    to the recognition of then-existing non-Muslim religious communities in
    their own right, as independent communities with full legal status - such
    as the right to own places of worship. But this has not happened, not least
    as the Treaty left it unclear what such recognition might mean. Bizarrely,
    the government ministry which handles relations with many of Turkey's
    indigenous non-Muslim religious communities which existed before the
    Lausanne Treaty is the Foreign Ministry.

    The situation of non-Muslim minorities in Turkey is extremely complex
    under the present legal framework. The official view of the state is that
    different regulations apply to the various non-Muslim religious
    communities. Firstly in the state's view, there are the groups that count
    as non-Muslim minorities within the meaning of the Lausanne Treaty. In the
    view of the state, these are exclusively the Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks
    and Jews. A second group are the non-Muslim minorities who were present in
    Turkey in 1923 at the time of the Lausanne Treaty but were not recognised
    by the state as minorities within the meaning of the Treaty. These are, for
    example, the Syrian Orthodox Church, churches such as the Chaldean Church
    and the Syrian Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church.

    However, it is very important to note that the communities in both these
    groups actually exist today and have been recognised by the state as
    existing - but they have not been legally recognized and have no legal
    personality (Tuzelkisilik).

    Besides the non-Muslim minorities are a number of so-called community
    foundations that are attributed by the state to, but not necessarily
    controlled by, certain non-Muslim minorities (such as Armenians, Greeks,
    Syriac Orthodox, Jews and others) which have gained legal personality
    (Tuzelkisilik). It is also important to note that, legally, there is no
    link at all between these community foundations and the non-Muslim
    minorities the state attributes them to.

    Neither the Roman Catholic Church nor those Protestant churches that
    existed in Turkey before 1923 have any community foundations that could be
    attributed to them.

    None of these non-Muslim minorities - whichever category the state sees
    them as belonging to - have as religious communities the kind of rights to
    religious freedom that Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights
    envisages. In practice, all these communities are on a very similar legal
    footing to newer communities such as Baha'is and Jehovah's Witnesses, which
    did not exist in Turkey in 1923, and which today have no legal status as
    communities.

    The 2004 Associations Law was welcomed by some newer communities, such as
    Protestant and Jehovah's Witnesses, as it allowed people within these
    communities - but not the communities themselves - to form a legal entity
    that would allow them to engage in some activities legally. However, the
    "Association formula" is still rather new and some communities are
    reluctant to use it. A major reason is that, being small communities, they
    cannot fulfil the necessary requirements to establish an association. State
    officials seem to pay more attention than is usual to associations
    established in connection with religious communities.

    There are also serious questions of possible inadequacies in the
    "Association formula". One problem is that if those who run the foundation
    and those who lead the community are not the same people, there is a
    possibility that they may disagree with each other - which may leave the
    community again without the possibility of legally carrying out activities.
    The "Association formula" proposed by the government to "solve" the legal
    personality problem does not provide a satisfactory solution. Whether it
    will work effectively as a "limited" solution remains to be seen. This will
    depend on both whether the formula is in practice found to be simple and
    flexible enough for the needs of small communities, and whether audits and
    decisions by state officials take account of this. These developments will
    need to be closely monitored.

    Even for long-established communities with the limited recognition which
    has been conferred - without rights to for example own places of worship -
    the attitudes of the Turkish state can be hostile and even threatening.
    This has been seen in the case of the Armenian Apostolic Patriarch Mesrop
    Mutafyan, who leads Turkey's biggest Christian church, who was elected
    Patriarch in 1998 against the express wishes of the Turkish authorities. He
    has been forced to retreat into health-related seclusion, brought on by
    years of pressure from the media, the public and from the Armenian
    diaspora, some of which has dubbed him a traitor. Should Patriarch Mesrop
    not recover, the Turkish authorities are likely to insist - as they have
    done up to now - that his successor as head of the Armenian (as well as the
    Greek Orthodox) Patriarchate must be a Turkish citizen resident in Turkey.
    The Armenian Church may struggle to find a candidate with the diplomatic
    and linguistic skills and the international experience for such a crucial
    role in such a delicate and exposed position. This problem is of importance
    not just for the Church but for the Armenian community as a whole.

    Denial of recognition also leaves the adherents of many faiths vulnerable
    to discrimination, as citizens have their religious affiliation recorded in
    official records. In this way the state indicates which religions are
    "legitimate" and which are not. The Baha'i community has about 10,000
    members, but is not recognised as a religion. As the Baha'i faith therefore
    cannot be chosen in the public registry, Baha'is are forced to choose
    either Islam or leave the religion part of their Identity Card empty.

    Who can own places of worship?

    An aspect of this non-recognition is that even recognised religious
    communities cannot themselves own properties such as places of worship.
    Bizarrely, these must be owned by separate foundations not under the direct
    control of the communities. This has drawn much attention, focused on the
    passage of a series of Foundation laws - none of which have solved the
    basic problem.

    The most recent amendments to the Foundations Law have at least led to a
    number of improvements to the functioning of these community foundations.
    Yet even so the communities to which the community foundations are
    attributed still complain about a number of severe problems relating to
    their community foundations that have not been resolved. Expectations
    outside Turkey that the amendments to the Foundations Law would also lead
    to a complete solution for all the unresolved questions regarding legal
    recognition of non-Muslim minorities have not been fulfilled. As Dilek
    Kurban of the respected TESEV Foundation noted, the Foundations Law is
    "incompatible with the principle of freedom of association, which is
    guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights, the Constitution and
    the [1923] Treaty of Lausanne".

    It should be made clear that the Foundations Law can only be the right
    place to resolve problems regarding the community foundations and is not
    the right place to resolve the basic problems of non-Muslim minorities in
    Turkey. That may only be expected from a new Constitution based on the
    European Convention on Human Rights and implementation in law of religious
    freedom.

    Stalemate for Alevi Muslims

    Alevi Muslims form between 20 and 30 per cent of the population, but the
    overwhelming majority of their places of worship - cemevi or cem houses -
    are not recognised by the state. The Alevi community organised a mass
    demonstration, attended by tens of thousands of Alevis on 8 November 2010
    expressing their frustration that they are still not treated as citizens
    with equal rights, and calling for the abolition of both the Diyanet and
    compulsory religious education lessons in public schools.

    Another cause of frustration for Alevis is that their leaders - called
    "Dede" or elders - are not entitled to legally hold that title. This dates
    back to 1925, when Act No. 677 of 30 November 1341 (1925) "On the Closure
    of Dervish Monasteries and Tombs, the Abolition of the Office of Keeper of
    Tombs and the Abolition and Prohibition of Certain Titles" was brought in.
    This abolished the title, and Article 174 (Preservation of Reform Laws) of
    the Constitution makes it impossible to change this Law. This Article
    states: "No provision of the Constitution shall be construed or interpreted
    as rendering unconstitutional the Reform Laws indicated below, which aim to
    raise Turkish society above the level of contemporary civilisation and to
    safeguard the secular character of the Republic, and which were in force on
    the date of the adoption by referendum of the Constitution of Turkey."
    Among the laws listed is Act 677.

    Education about religion or belief

    In contrast to the children adhering to the two non-Muslim religious
    communities acknowledged in the education system - Christians and Jews -
    Alevis, Baha'is, children of other faiths and atheists are forced to attend
    de facto Sunni religious education classes in public and private schools.
    Diyanet officials have occasionally indicated that they regard Alevism as a
    part of Sunni Islam and do not respect their different interpretation of
    Islam. This means that Turkey has not seen any need to alter the religious
    education curriculum. In a court ruling (Hasan and Eylem Zengin v. Turkey,
    Application no. 1448/04) the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stated
    that this is unacceptable.

    Turkey is obliged by this judgment to take action to ensure that the same
    problem does not reoccur for anyone. However, as Turkish news agencies
    reported on 25 August 2008, then Minister of Education Hüseyin Çelik
    claimed the decision was about the old curriculum. As Alevi beliefs are
    included in the new curriculum, the Minister claimed the ECHR judgment was
    inapplicable. Implementation of the judgment is still pending before the
    Council of Europe Committee of Ministers.

    Teaching of other subjects includes disinformation about or defamation of
    faiths. Missionary activity is listed as one of the national threats in
    compulsory public school books that are taught in Grade 8 classes on the
    History of Turkish Republican Reforms and Atatürkism. The textbook states
    that missionaries "try to fulfil their goals through the significant
    financial support of foreign powers, some non-governmental organisations
    and from their own supporters. Missionaries exploit the financial hardships
    of people. They translate texts related to their own beliefs into different
    languages and distribute them free of charge and accordingly use written
    and visual media for their propaganda purposes. They are a threat to the
    national unity and integrity of our state and nation."

    Those at risk from violent attack think such sentiments - propagated
    through the school system and mass media - are major factors in violent
    attacks and murders motivated by intolerance.

    As a participating State of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation
    in Europe (OSCE), Turkey has agreed to implement measures "to counter
    prejudices and misrepresentation, particularly in the field of education".
    Initiatives to assist this include the Toledo Guiding Principles on
    Teaching about Religions and Beliefs in Public Schools. However the
    authorities have shown no visible interest in providing fair education on
    religions and beliefs in schools.

    Discrimination within the public service

    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. While there are non-Muslims employed at lower levels there are
    frequent allegations that they experience discrimination and are never
    allowed to take a high ranking position. Syriac Orthodox Christians, for
    example, have complained to Forum 18 that their young people are never
    allowed the possibility of careers leading to senior positions in the
    military or the civil service - even when they are fully qualified for such
    careers. Many are deeply disappointed, Forum 18 has been told, when they
    realise that they are not seen as "genuine" Turks, and so will never be
    allowed the chances to serve their country which those seen as "genuine"
    Turks have.

    Religious clothing

    A 1934 Law which according to Article 174 of the Constitution may not be
    altered or abolished bans wearing religious garments on the streets, with
    Muslims being the initial targets. With the exception of the Ecumenical
    Patriarch, the Armenian Patriarch and the Chief Rabbi, no religious
    minority leaders until the 1980s acted against this ban. Enforcement has
    been more sporadic recently, but many religious leaders choose not to wear
    religious clothes outside their place of worship, partly because of this
    Law and partly - in the case of members of religious minorities - for fear
    of provoking attacks. Foreign Greek, Russian and Georgian Orthodox priests
    have complained in recent years that they have been forced to remove their
    cassocks and crosses before being allowed to enter the country.

    The wearing of headscarves by Muslim women has long been a controversial
    issue. The AKP party's move to allow female university students to wear
    headscarves was prevented by the Constitutional Court, and caused much
    debate and hostility in the secular sectors of the population. Although it
    is prohibited to attend university wearing headscarves, or any religious
    symbol, this prohibition is not consistently implemented. It has become a
    symbolic issue that seems to embody the questions of whether Turkey will
    continue to be a "secular" country - as the state defines this - or not.

    Conscientious objection to military service denied

    Conscientious objection to compulsory military service is not permitted.
    Conscientious objectors of military age (including among the roughly 3,000
    Jehovah's Witnesses) face an unending cycle of prosecutions and
    imprisonments. In the ECHR case of Ülke v. Turkey (Application no.
    39437/98), the Court found that such punishment was a violation of the
    prohibition in the European Convention of Human Rights of torture, inhuman
    and degrading treatment. Turkey continues to disregard the 17 October 2007
    call of the Council of Europe Committee of Ministers for it "to adopt
    rapidly the legislative reform necessary to prevent similar violations."

    Internet censorship

    Access to the website of well-known atheist Richard Dawkins is prevented
    in Turkey through a court decision. His books, as also those of other
    atheists, are however permitted, despite legal attempts to ban them.
    Similarly, access to a website dedicated to Turan Dursun, a well-known
    Turkish atheist murdered for his beliefs in 1990, is barred.

    Conclusion

    Many people and communities have for a long time faced obstacles in
    carrying out peaceful religious activity - activity that is protected in
    the international freedom of religion or belief agreements that Turkey has
    committed itself to. The long-standing lack of willingness to legally
    recognise religious communities in their own right, the disinformation by
    public officials and the public education system, ultra-nationalism and
    mass media intolerance behind violent attacks and murders, and the Turkish
    definition of "secularism" are the clearest examples of this. They cause
    serious doubt about whether the country is really committed to universal
    human rights for all.

    Other obstacles include: problems around the rule of law; discrimination
    against Alevi Muslims; discrimination within the public service; lack of
    freedom to wear religious clothing in public institutions; denial of
    conscientious objection to military service; and limited internet
    censorship.

    Turkish citizens committed to human rights for all have argued to Forum 18
    that the protection of the right of all to freedom of religion or belief,
    as laid down in the international human rights standards which Turkey is
    party to, should be the standard used by the authorities in all affected
    fields. They also argue strongly that positive steps should also be taken
    by the authorities to eliminate social hatred against all groups that are
    the targets of intolerant attitudes. (END)

    More analyses and commentaries on freedom of thought, conscience and
    belief in Turkey can be found at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?query=&a mp;religion=all&country=68>.

    A compilation of Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
    (OSCE) freedom of religion or belief commitments can be found at
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_ id=1351>.

    A printer-friendly map of Turkey is available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=mideast&Rootmap=turk ey>.
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/
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