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TURKEY ADMITS HAVING SECRET IDENTITY CODES FOR RELIGIOUS MINORITIES
First Things
Aug 27 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 7:52 AM
Mark Movsesian
This story will strike many readers as odd, but it is nonetheless
true. For decades, religious minorities in Turkey, especially
Christians, have complained that the state assigns them secret identity
codes. Christians maintain that government officials use the codes to
discriminate against them when it comes to jobs, licenses, building
permits, and so on. Of course, such discrimination would be illegal
under Turkish law, which has banned religious discrimination since
the Kemalist revolution. And complaints about secret identity codes
surely must seem a bit paranoid to outsiders, a kind of conspiracy
theory-though, given the genocide of Armenians and other Christians in
Turkey 100 years ago, one could forgive Christians for being anxious.
The rumors turn out to be true, however. This month, for the first
time, Turkey's interior ministry acknowledged that the secret identity
codes do, in fact, exist. When an Istanbul family tried to register
its child at a local Armenian school recently, officials asked the
family to prove it had the so-called "2" code. The family had never
been notified of any code and inquired what the officials meant. The
education ministry passed the buck to the interior ministry, which
eventually acknowledged that it indeed categorizes religious minorities
by secret numeric codes: "1" for Greek Orthodox Christians, "2" for
Armenian Apostolic Christians, "3" for Jews, and so on. The family's
lawyer states that his clients are now "waiting for an official
document saying, 'Yes, your race code is '2,' you can register in an
Armenian school.'"
In acknowledging the secret classification system, the interior
ministry said the information about religious identity comes from
Ottoman records, which the ministry uses in order to help religious
minorities exercise their rights under the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.
With respect to education, for example, the ministry supplies the codes
to school officials so that Armenians can attend Armenian schools. The
government no longer collects information about religious or racial
identity, the ministry claims.
Minority communities in Turkey are skeptical. If this was all on
the up-and-up, why deny for so long that such codes exist? And why
hide their existence from the so-called beneficiaries? After all,
if the codes are meant to help minorities, you'd want to let the
minorities know about them, not wait for local officials to reveal
them by accident. And, given twentieth-century history, can anyone
blame Christians in Turkey for thinking the codes are used to
discriminate against them? The main opposition Republican People's
Party has threatened to make the issue of the secret codes a problem
for the ruling AKP. "If this is true," an opposition leader said,
"it is fatal. It must be examined." We'll see.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/08/27/turkey-admits-having-secret-identity-codes-for-religious-minorities/
From: Baghdasarian
First Things
Aug 27 2013
Tuesday, August 27, 2013, 7:52 AM
Mark Movsesian
This story will strike many readers as odd, but it is nonetheless
true. For decades, religious minorities in Turkey, especially
Christians, have complained that the state assigns them secret identity
codes. Christians maintain that government officials use the codes to
discriminate against them when it comes to jobs, licenses, building
permits, and so on. Of course, such discrimination would be illegal
under Turkish law, which has banned religious discrimination since
the Kemalist revolution. And complaints about secret identity codes
surely must seem a bit paranoid to outsiders, a kind of conspiracy
theory-though, given the genocide of Armenians and other Christians in
Turkey 100 years ago, one could forgive Christians for being anxious.
The rumors turn out to be true, however. This month, for the first
time, Turkey's interior ministry acknowledged that the secret identity
codes do, in fact, exist. When an Istanbul family tried to register
its child at a local Armenian school recently, officials asked the
family to prove it had the so-called "2" code. The family had never
been notified of any code and inquired what the officials meant. The
education ministry passed the buck to the interior ministry, which
eventually acknowledged that it indeed categorizes religious minorities
by secret numeric codes: "1" for Greek Orthodox Christians, "2" for
Armenian Apostolic Christians, "3" for Jews, and so on. The family's
lawyer states that his clients are now "waiting for an official
document saying, 'Yes, your race code is '2,' you can register in an
Armenian school.'"
In acknowledging the secret classification system, the interior
ministry said the information about religious identity comes from
Ottoman records, which the ministry uses in order to help religious
minorities exercise their rights under the Lausanne Treaty of 1923.
With respect to education, for example, the ministry supplies the codes
to school officials so that Armenians can attend Armenian schools. The
government no longer collects information about religious or racial
identity, the ministry claims.
Minority communities in Turkey are skeptical. If this was all on
the up-and-up, why deny for so long that such codes exist? And why
hide their existence from the so-called beneficiaries? After all,
if the codes are meant to help minorities, you'd want to let the
minorities know about them, not wait for local officials to reveal
them by accident. And, given twentieth-century history, can anyone
blame Christians in Turkey for thinking the codes are used to
discriminate against them? The main opposition Republican People's
Party has threatened to make the issue of the secret codes a problem
for the ruling AKP. "If this is true," an opposition leader said,
"it is fatal. It must be examined." We'll see.
http://www.firstthings.com/blogs/firstthoughts/2013/08/27/turkey-admits-having-secret-identity-codes-for-religious-minorities/
From: Baghdasarian