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WILL MINORITY NEWSPAPERS SURVIVE?
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
Today's Zaman
Aug 23, 2011
Turkey
According to London-based Minority Rights Group's estimates,* there are
around 23,000 Jews, 3,000 Greeks, 60,000 Armenians and 15,000 Assyrians
living in Turkey today. In total their number is around 100,000.
How we have reached this point when once 25 percent of the total
population was non-Muslim in Turkey is of course a very long story.
Some perished in massacres. Some were deported in population
exchanges. Some left the country voluntarily. But the end result is
very dramatic. Their number is less than 1 percent now. The last
wave of migration happened after Hrant Dink was murdered in 2007;
many young members of minority groups left Turkey hoping to have
better lives in other countries.
As I tried to explain a couple of times in this column before, the
Turkish Republic applied a rigorous fait accompli strategy against non
Muslims in which it pushed these vulnerable groups to the corner from
every possible angel. Non-Muslims were subjected to pogroms and heavy
taxes, their properties were taken from them, and their institutions
were denied legal personality and protection; all with the aim of
getting rid of those remaining from these groups in this country.
When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002,
this fait accompli strategy ended, "but the rights period" started.
The government provided non-Muslims some rights, but all these
rights have some limitations. For example, the government allowed
non-Muslims to use their historic churches in different parts of the
country; however, this permission was only given for one single day
a year. The government has restored some churches, but it did not
return them to their historic owners; instead it recognized them
"as museums" or something else. The government changed the law of
foundations to allow non-Muslim communities to gain new properties,
but it could not solve their problem of returning the old properties
that had been taken from them before. Halki Theological School is
still closed. The government still interferes with the election of
religious leaders of non-Muslims groups; the latest example happened
in the Armenian patriarchate election process.
In short, this government has improved the situation of non-Muslims
but did not give them some rights that would change these vulnerable
groups' situations irreversibly and dramatically. For example, opening
the Halki School would be a step like that, which would give a kiss
of life to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is on the verge of
total extinction.
However, this Tuesday the government took a small but meaningful step
that filled me with hope for the future of non-Muslims in Turkey. The
Press Advertising Association (PAA), a governmental agency, has
decided to allocate TL 250,000 (approximately 120,000 pounds) to six
minority newspapers belonging to a handful of Armenian, Jewish and
Greek communities in Turkey.
The financial difficulties of minority newspapers had been on the
agenda of the PAA since news had spread that the Greek newspaper
Apoyevmatini (86 years old) was going to shut down. The PAA has decided
to give this financial aid to these minority newspapers every year,
and the money will be provided from the Fund for Various Tasks of
this agency.
Along with the Greek Apoyevmatini, another Greek newspaper Iho,
Armenian newspapers Jamanak, Marmara and Agos and Jewish newspaper
Salom will benefit from this annual government financial aid.
This is a small but quite meaningful development because there has been
no such example in our history in which state institutions supported
non-Muslims directly. It is quite significant because it aims to
support the foundation of these non-Muslim groups by supporting their
cultural life. I hope that this aid will help to ease the financial
difficulties of these newspapers, whose buyers have been in a steady
decline as the number of non-Muslims has been ever shrinking. I also
hope that this symbolic step will be followed by some other steps
that will make life easier for our handful of minorities. Let's see
what the future will bring for non-Muslims in Turkey.
*"A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey"
ORHAN KEMAL CENGİZ
Today's Zaman
Aug 23, 2011
Turkey
According to London-based Minority Rights Group's estimates,* there are
around 23,000 Jews, 3,000 Greeks, 60,000 Armenians and 15,000 Assyrians
living in Turkey today. In total their number is around 100,000.
How we have reached this point when once 25 percent of the total
population was non-Muslim in Turkey is of course a very long story.
Some perished in massacres. Some were deported in population
exchanges. Some left the country voluntarily. But the end result is
very dramatic. Their number is less than 1 percent now. The last
wave of migration happened after Hrant Dink was murdered in 2007;
many young members of minority groups left Turkey hoping to have
better lives in other countries.
As I tried to explain a couple of times in this column before, the
Turkish Republic applied a rigorous fait accompli strategy against non
Muslims in which it pushed these vulnerable groups to the corner from
every possible angel. Non-Muslims were subjected to pogroms and heavy
taxes, their properties were taken from them, and their institutions
were denied legal personality and protection; all with the aim of
getting rid of those remaining from these groups in this country.
When the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in 2002,
this fait accompli strategy ended, "but the rights period" started.
The government provided non-Muslims some rights, but all these
rights have some limitations. For example, the government allowed
non-Muslims to use their historic churches in different parts of the
country; however, this permission was only given for one single day
a year. The government has restored some churches, but it did not
return them to their historic owners; instead it recognized them
"as museums" or something else. The government changed the law of
foundations to allow non-Muslim communities to gain new properties,
but it could not solve their problem of returning the old properties
that had been taken from them before. Halki Theological School is
still closed. The government still interferes with the election of
religious leaders of non-Muslims groups; the latest example happened
in the Armenian patriarchate election process.
In short, this government has improved the situation of non-Muslims
but did not give them some rights that would change these vulnerable
groups' situations irreversibly and dramatically. For example, opening
the Halki School would be a step like that, which would give a kiss
of life to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which is on the verge of
total extinction.
However, this Tuesday the government took a small but meaningful step
that filled me with hope for the future of non-Muslims in Turkey. The
Press Advertising Association (PAA), a governmental agency, has
decided to allocate TL 250,000 (approximately 120,000 pounds) to six
minority newspapers belonging to a handful of Armenian, Jewish and
Greek communities in Turkey.
The financial difficulties of minority newspapers had been on the
agenda of the PAA since news had spread that the Greek newspaper
Apoyevmatini (86 years old) was going to shut down. The PAA has decided
to give this financial aid to these minority newspapers every year,
and the money will be provided from the Fund for Various Tasks of
this agency.
Along with the Greek Apoyevmatini, another Greek newspaper Iho,
Armenian newspapers Jamanak, Marmara and Agos and Jewish newspaper
Salom will benefit from this annual government financial aid.
This is a small but quite meaningful development because there has been
no such example in our history in which state institutions supported
non-Muslims directly. It is quite significant because it aims to
support the foundation of these non-Muslim groups by supporting their
cultural life. I hope that this aid will help to ease the financial
difficulties of these newspapers, whose buyers have been in a steady
decline as the number of non-Muslims has been ever shrinking. I also
hope that this symbolic step will be followed by some other steps
that will make life easier for our handful of minorities. Let's see
what the future will bring for non-Muslims in Turkey.
*"A Quest for Equality: Minorities in Turkey"