Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

ISTANBUL: Gov't Openings On Religious Freedoms Amount To One Step Fo

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • ISTANBUL: Gov't Openings On Religious Freedoms Amount To One Step Fo

    GOV'T OPENINGS ON RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS AMOUNT TO ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK
    by Yonca Poyraz Dogan

    Today's Zaman
    July 15 2012
    Turkey

    [Translated from Turkish]

    Since the beginning of the 2000s, there have been many signs that
    there are high hopes for the religious minorities in Turkey, and those
    positive signs have encouraged some of those living abroad to return
    to their homeland.

    "I am one of them," said Tuma Celik, editor-in-chief of Sabro, which
    means hope in Aramaic and which is the first newspaper representing
    the Arameans (the Syriac community) of Turkey.

    He has been in Turkey for the past year and a half after living in
    Europe for 25 years.

    "We were impressed by the first years of the Justice and Development
    Party [AK Party]," he said in reference to the ruling AK Party's
    initiatives in regards to granting greater religious freedoms in
    the country, which pleased the Arameans, who originated in Turkey,
    but the current population has dwindled to around 20,000 despite
    numbers of around half a million in Europe.

    "Now many Arameans question the motives and actions of the government.

    People who plan to come back to Turkey think twice," he said, pointing
    out the decreasing confidence that Arameans have in Turkey.

    Some recent developments seem to prove them right. The Supreme Court of
    Appeals passed on June 13 its final ruling to seize some of the lands
    of the Aramean Mor Gabriel Monastery, near Midyat in the province
    of Mardin in southeastern Turkey. The ruling came after a legal
    battle which started in 2008 when the villages around the monastery
    claimed land while the land officials redrew the boundaries around
    the monastery as part of a modernization project involving its land
    registry records. As a result, founded in A.D. 397 and often referred
    to as a "second Jerusalem," the monastery does not have rights to
    the land on which it sits.

    "This is quite puzzling for us," Celik said. "On one hand there is
    this government which has taken some positive steps when it comes
    to granting rights to its minorities, but on the other hand is a
    government that does this."

    However, he added that all the information they have with regards to
    the top court's verdict has come through the Turkish press, which
    called it scandalous since the court "lost" several land title and
    financial/tax documents that undoubtedly demonstrated the ownership
    of the land by the monastery. The fact that the ruling of the court
    has not been officially submitted to Mor Gabriel Monastery officials
    yet leaves the Aramean community in limbo since they are not in a
    position to carry their case further to the European Court of Human
    Rights (ECtHR).

    "We would like to solve our problems here, not elsewhere. But this
    court decision, if true, will help to create enemies of the Turkish
    government abroad," he said. "How are the Arameans living in Europe
    supposed to understand this situation?

    Erkam Tufan Aytav, secretary-general of the Journalists and Writers
    Foundation's (GYV) Medialog Platform, suggested that the court's
    verdict is "retaliation" for some Turks after the Swedish parliament
    officially recognized on March 11, 2010, the alleged genocide of the
    Assyrians alongside that of the Armenians and Pontic Greeks.

    "Because some Arameans who live in Sweden have been influential in the
    Swedish parliament's recognition of the genocide, the decision of the
    Supreme Court of Appeals pleased many Turks. However, Turkey, which
    abides by the rule of law, and its courts should rule accordingly,"
    he said.

    In a related development, a petition campaign has been started through
    a website called, in English, "We grew up together in this country"
    (http://beraberbuyudukbuulkede.com/). So far, 300 academics and
    intellectuals have signed the petition to back Turkey's Arameans in
    their case.

    "According to us, the decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals reveals
    the hypocrisy of the state towards Arameans. While on one hand there
    are calls to the Aramean people who live outside Turkey to return,
    on the other hand, Arameans are declared occupiers," they said.

    More paradoxes in minority policies

    During his historic visit in earl y June to the Ecumenical Patriarch
    Bartholomew I at the Istanbul-based Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate,
    the president of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, Professor
    Mehmet Gormez, voiced his support for the reopening of the Greek
    Orthodox Halki (Heybeliada) Seminary, saying that it is a fundamental
    right of non-Muslims living in Turkey to raise their own theologians.

    It was not the first time that a Religious Affairs Directorate -
    under the Prime Ministry - visited the patriarchate. The first time
    was by then Religious Affairs Directorate President Mehmet Nuri Yilmaz
    in 2001, but this was the first one that was so publicized.

    "The Religious Affairs Directorate sees non-Muslim citizens living
    in Turkey as an integral part of this country. Regarding religious
    freedoms - freedom of religion, freedom to receive an education and
    the sacredness of places of worship - we demand for them the same
    rights that we demand for ourselves," Gormez said.

    On the issue of reopening the Halki Seminary, closed in 1971 under a
    law that placed religious and military training under state control,
    Bartholomew I said the government is supportive of the reopening of
    the school and that they are hopeful that it will be reopened.

    Yorgo Demir, a journalist who writes about the issues affecting
    Turkey's Greek minority, said the Turkish government might be preparing
    the public for the reopening of the seminary.

    "Gormez's visit was on live television. This might be part of the
    government's policy to prepare the public for the reopening of the
    seminary," he said.

    He also said that the positive steps of the government with regard
    to minority rights have so far pleased Turkey's Greek minority,
    but that they also have some concerns.

    "Some government officials have indicated that there are no obstacles
    in the Constitution to the reopening of the Halki Seminary," he said.

    "Does the government expect something in return?" He further added
    that Gormez mentioned the issue of building a mosque in Athens during
    his visit to the patriarchate.

    A few days after Gormez's visit to the Greek Patriarchate, Parliament
    Speaker Cemil Cicek rejected a request that an Alevi house of worship,
    a cemevi, be established on the premises of Parliament.

    "According to the Religious Affairs Directorate, Alevism is not a
    separate religion but a formation within Islam, and a part of the
    richness of Islam that arose during the course of history, and the
    house of worship in Islam is the mosque."

    These remarks angered both Alevis, who have been historically
    suspicious of Sunnis, and human rights defenders.

    Does the Ittihatist mentality persist?

    "Who dares question somebody's beliefs?" asked Fermani Altun, president
    of the World Ahlul Bayt Foundation, an Istanbul-based organization
    which brings together Alevi groups from around the world.

    "Discrimination based on religion is a global problem, and it is an
    abuse of human rights. Islam teaches that it is a sin to think badly
    of someone because of his/her beliefs," he said.

    But why does the government, which introduced its Alevi initiative
    back in 2009 and held seven workshops attended by several leaders
    from Alevi associations, fail to recognize the cemevi?

    Altun said there are plenty of reasons, including the status quo
    forces within the state which resist change.

    "But much of the fault belongs to the AK Party, which went only half
    way in meeting the demands of the citizens. Obviously some people
    would be disturbed by the AK Party's initiatives - this country was
    established on the basis that it would be Turkish and Sunni - but
    the government should have been more courageous than this," he said.

    He also said that there were Alevis who were supportive of the
    government, and they expected to be political candidates for the
    AK Party, but none of the nearly 200 Alevi candidates were given a
    chance in the June 2011 elections.

    According to academic and human rights defender Baskin Oran, the
    AK Party has paradoxes in its minority policies because on the one
    hand it does not have the Ittihatist mentality - the mentality of the
    Committee of Union and Progress (CUP) (Ittihat ve Terakki Cemiyeti),
    which wanted to get rid of non-Muslims from Turkey when the Ottoman
    Empire was falling apart at the beginning of the 20th century -
    but on the other hand it supports the policy of one-religion.

    "Since it is not Ittihatist, it can employ measures to remove the
    oppression that minorities are subjected to," he said. "However, it
    is also quite conservative and Islamic, plus it acts like a burgher."

    According to academic Cengiz Aktar, who is among the leaders of the
    campaign in support of the Arameans of Turkey, the biggest obstacle
    in front of the government when tackling minority issues is its
    nationalistic stance.

    "This is the soft belly of the government. Old elites are using this
    point," he said, adding that the AK Party government should stay
    away from the very same ideology, the ideology of the Ittihatists
    and Kemalists, from which they have suffered.

    "The more they realize this, the more they can be empathetic towards
    minority groups, and the stronger Turkish democracy will be," he said.

    "What is needed is political will which will ensure rights for all
    citizens."

    Gov't, non-Muslims get closer but...

    After years of mistrust and distance, the government and the non-Muslim
    community have been establishing closer relations despite some recent
    setbacks.

    In November 2006, Parliament passed a bill to return assets and
    property previously seized from non-Muslim foundations by the
    state, but it was vetoed by then-President Ahmet Necdet Sezer,
    who claimed the bill was a national security risk and returned the
    bill to Parliament. That law was subject to much criticism because it
    violated the fundamental rights and liberties of non-Muslim citizens,
    which are guaranteed under the Turkish Constitution, the European
    Convention on Human Rights and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne.

    Then, civil society groups appealed to the government and
    Parliament not to pass the bill in its current form and to listen
    to representatives of non-Muslim foundations before coming up with
    a new draft.

    Last year, the government issued a decree to return properties
    confiscated from religious minorities since 1936, and in cases where
    property belonging to such organizations has been sold by the state
    to third parties, the religious foundation will be paid the market
    value of the property by the Ministry of Finance. The decision
    was announced before an iftar (fast-breaking dinner) on Aug. 28,
    attended by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and representatives
    of non-Muslim communities in Istanbul. Non-Muslim groups in Turkey
    have highly praised the government's move.

    [Translated from Turkish]

Working...
X