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RELIGIOUS MINORITIES IN TURKEY
ARMENPRESS
APRIL 13, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2012 annual report
recommended designating Turkey as a "country of particular concern
(CPC)" for its "systematic and egregious limitations on the freedom of
religion." Turkey was on the commission's "Watch List" from 2009-11,
reports Armenpress citing The Armenian Weekly.
The commission found that restrictions on the rights of religious
minorities--from owning, maintaining, and transferring communal
and individual property, to training clergy and holding religious
classes--have led to the "critical shrinkage" and even disappearance of
non-Muslim communities. One senior Christian religious leader grieved,
"We are an endangered species here in Turkey."
USCIRF charges the Turkish government of interfering in the
religious matters of minorities, and highlights the presence of
"societal discrimination," occasional violence, restrictions on
religious attire, anti-Semitism in the society and the media, and
the infringement on the property rights of religious minorities. It
notes that religious minorities are targeted within Turkish society
"partly because most are both religious and ethnic minorities and,
therefore, are viewed with suspicion by some ethnic Turks."
USCIRF relied on the State Department's estimates on the number of
religious minorities in Turkey, which total about 0.1 percent of the
population. According to those figures, the largest non-Muslim group
is the Armenian Orthodox community numbering at 65,000, followed by
23,000 Jews; 15,000 Syriac Christians; 10,000 Baha'is; 5,000 Yezidis;
3,300 Jehovah's Witnesses; 3,000 Protestant Christians; 1,700 Greek
Orthodox Christians; and small communities of Georgian and Bulgarian
Orthodox Christians, Maronites, Chaldeans, Nestorians, Assyrians,
and Roman Catholics.
Religious minorities fall into two categories in Turkey, according
to the report: 1) The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish
communities (which are protected under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty),
alongside the Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean, and Roman Catholic communities
(which are not covered by the treaty; referred to as the "Lausanne
Treaty plus three|| minorities"); and 2) religious minorities that
are not bound by ethnicity, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants,
and Baha'is. Those in the former category have certain limited legal
rights. Furthermore, only the religious minorities covered by the
Lausanne Treaty can call their religious institutions churches or
synagogues; the other groups must refer to their houses of worship
as cultural or community centers.
ARMENPRESS
APRIL 13, 2012
YEREVAN
YEREVAN, APRIL 13, ARMENPRESS: The United States Commission on
International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2012 annual report
recommended designating Turkey as a "country of particular concern
(CPC)" for its "systematic and egregious limitations on the freedom of
religion." Turkey was on the commission's "Watch List" from 2009-11,
reports Armenpress citing The Armenian Weekly.
The commission found that restrictions on the rights of religious
minorities--from owning, maintaining, and transferring communal
and individual property, to training clergy and holding religious
classes--have led to the "critical shrinkage" and even disappearance of
non-Muslim communities. One senior Christian religious leader grieved,
"We are an endangered species here in Turkey."
USCIRF charges the Turkish government of interfering in the
religious matters of minorities, and highlights the presence of
"societal discrimination," occasional violence, restrictions on
religious attire, anti-Semitism in the society and the media, and
the infringement on the property rights of religious minorities. It
notes that religious minorities are targeted within Turkish society
"partly because most are both religious and ethnic minorities and,
therefore, are viewed with suspicion by some ethnic Turks."
USCIRF relied on the State Department's estimates on the number of
religious minorities in Turkey, which total about 0.1 percent of the
population. According to those figures, the largest non-Muslim group
is the Armenian Orthodox community numbering at 65,000, followed by
23,000 Jews; 15,000 Syriac Christians; 10,000 Baha'is; 5,000 Yezidis;
3,300 Jehovah's Witnesses; 3,000 Protestant Christians; 1,700 Greek
Orthodox Christians; and small communities of Georgian and Bulgarian
Orthodox Christians, Maronites, Chaldeans, Nestorians, Assyrians,
and Roman Catholics.
Religious minorities fall into two categories in Turkey, according
to the report: 1) The Armenian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, and Jewish
communities (which are protected under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty),
alongside the Syriac Orthodox, Chaldean, and Roman Catholic communities
(which are not covered by the treaty; referred to as the "Lausanne
Treaty plus three|| minorities"); and 2) religious minorities that
are not bound by ethnicity, like the Jehovah's Witnesses, Protestants,
and Baha'is. Those in the former category have certain limited legal
rights. Furthermore, only the religious minorities covered by the
Lausanne Treaty can call their religious institutions churches or
synagogues; the other groups must refer to their houses of worship
as cultural or community centers.