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Daily Sabah, Turkey
Jan 6 2015
Minorities, Turkey, and the quality of its democracy
MARKAR ESAYAN
Published19 hours ago
On Jan. 2, Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu organized a Christmas lunch
for the leaders of Turkey's non-Muslim communities at the Prime
Ministry office in Dolmabahçe Palace. Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch
Bartholomew, Deputy Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church Peter
Stefanos, Vicar-General of the Chaldean Catholic community of Turkey
Francois Yakan, Patriarchal Vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church Yusuf
Çetin, Turkish ambassador to the Vatican Mehmet Paçacı, Patriarchal
Vicar of the Syrian Catholic Church in Turkey Yusuf SaÄ?, Apostolic
Administrator of the Armenian Catholic Archieparchy Levan Zekiyan,
Chief Rabbi Ä°shak Haleva and Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic
Church Aram AteÅ?yan were present at the lunch.
Mehmet Görmez, the head of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs,
Istanbul Mufti Rahmi Yaran and Directorate General of Foundations
General Manager Adnan Ertem also participated in the event.
DavutoÄ?lu began by conveying his best wishes to his guests for
Christmas, which is on Dec. 25 for Catholics and Protestants, but
falls on Jan. 6 for Eastern Orthodox Christians, which forms the most
populous non-Muslim community in Turkey.
DavutoÄ?lu continued: "We do not consider any tradition at this table
alien to these lands, or an outsider that arrived here afterward. I
hesitate to use the word 'minority.' In the context of authentic
cultural and religious traditions, this picture, which reflects all
the colors of our country, is significant for us. Also, this is an
important picture in terms of the principle of equal citizenship. We
have never attempted any discrimination of our citizens. On the
grounds of the fundamental principle of citizenship, the lives,
commodities, minds and honors of our citizens are sacred to us,
regardless of religious, sectarian or ethnic differences."
His remarks illustrate how the attitude of the state in Turkey has
radically changed compared to the recent past. This transformation has
been maturing since Nov. 3, 2002, when the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) became the ruling party.
To our friends who assume that Turkey had a secular, democratic,
modern and westernized democracy in the past, I would like to point
out a few implementations regarding non-Muslims that were routine in
this country for 80 years.
The state used to frequently seize the assets of non-Muslim
foundations through the Directorate of Foundations and adjudications.
The foundations were the only institutions non-Muslims could use for
their fundamental activities such as education, solidarity and
religious needs. For this reason, the non-Muslim population in this
country was minimized to a mere 100,000.
In this country, where an Armenian is DavutoÄ?lu's chief advisor now,
non-Muslims formerly did not have any chance to join civilian or
military bureaucracy and they could not even be assigned to the lowest
positions in the public sphere. All non-Muslim citizens were
blacklisted and followed by the state, and benefactors backing the
foundations were threatened.
Far from being allowed to construct any new churches, the
already-existing minority churches, schools and other foundation
buildings were demolished.
Non-Muslims were suppressed in economic, cultural and psychological
terms with violent means such as the Property Tax, the 1934 Thracian
pogroms and the 1955 Istanbul pogrom. The Turkish state regularly
abused minorities and violated their rights and the articles regarding
minorities according to the Lausanne Treaty, which was highly praised,
since it was Turkey's founding agreement. And the West shut its eyes
to all of this, because Turkey was a member of NATO.
Last year, the-then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an announced a
condolence message to the 1915 genocide victims, which broke another
taboo. He said: "We recognize and share your pain." This binding
official statement was announced on the official website of the Prime
Ministry.
Of course, there are still problems. For example, Heybeliada Halki
Seminary is still closed. And it is known that this is postponed due
to the unacceptable discriminatory practices carried out in Greece
against Turks residing in western Thrace. We have always argued that
this approach of the government is highly inequitable, but we have
never gotten into any trouble for our opinion.
At the closed-door session of the lunch on Jan. 2, requests regarding
this issue were also discussed. Moreover, the Syriacs' right to build
churches, schools and hospitals has been re-instated. They had been
deprived of this right due to the fact that the word "Syriac" was not
stated in the Lausanne Treaty. With this latest development, Syriacs
are now preparing to build a church in Istanbul for the first time in
modern Turkish history, and the state will provide them land.
Surely there are other criteria for democratization. But I know that
the health of a democracy can be measured by the conditions of
minorities in that country, particularly these days, when racism has
reached its peak in the U.S. and the EU.
http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/markar_esayan/2015/01/06/minorities-turkey-and-the-quality-of-its-democracy
From: Baghdasarian
Jan 6 2015
Minorities, Turkey, and the quality of its democracy
MARKAR ESAYAN
Published19 hours ago
On Jan. 2, Prime Minister Ahmet DavutoÄ?lu organized a Christmas lunch
for the leaders of Turkey's non-Muslim communities at the Prime
Ministry office in Dolmabahçe Palace. Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarch
Bartholomew, Deputy Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church Peter
Stefanos, Vicar-General of the Chaldean Catholic community of Turkey
Francois Yakan, Patriarchal Vicar of the Syriac Orthodox Church Yusuf
Çetin, Turkish ambassador to the Vatican Mehmet Paçacı, Patriarchal
Vicar of the Syrian Catholic Church in Turkey Yusuf SaÄ?, Apostolic
Administrator of the Armenian Catholic Archieparchy Levan Zekiyan,
Chief Rabbi Ä°shak Haleva and Archbishop of the Armenian Apostolic
Church Aram AteÅ?yan were present at the lunch.
Mehmet Görmez, the head of Turkey's Presidency of Religious Affairs,
Istanbul Mufti Rahmi Yaran and Directorate General of Foundations
General Manager Adnan Ertem also participated in the event.
DavutoÄ?lu began by conveying his best wishes to his guests for
Christmas, which is on Dec. 25 for Catholics and Protestants, but
falls on Jan. 6 for Eastern Orthodox Christians, which forms the most
populous non-Muslim community in Turkey.
DavutoÄ?lu continued: "We do not consider any tradition at this table
alien to these lands, or an outsider that arrived here afterward. I
hesitate to use the word 'minority.' In the context of authentic
cultural and religious traditions, this picture, which reflects all
the colors of our country, is significant for us. Also, this is an
important picture in terms of the principle of equal citizenship. We
have never attempted any discrimination of our citizens. On the
grounds of the fundamental principle of citizenship, the lives,
commodities, minds and honors of our citizens are sacred to us,
regardless of religious, sectarian or ethnic differences."
His remarks illustrate how the attitude of the state in Turkey has
radically changed compared to the recent past. This transformation has
been maturing since Nov. 3, 2002, when the Justice and Development
Party (AK Party) became the ruling party.
To our friends who assume that Turkey had a secular, democratic,
modern and westernized democracy in the past, I would like to point
out a few implementations regarding non-Muslims that were routine in
this country for 80 years.
The state used to frequently seize the assets of non-Muslim
foundations through the Directorate of Foundations and adjudications.
The foundations were the only institutions non-Muslims could use for
their fundamental activities such as education, solidarity and
religious needs. For this reason, the non-Muslim population in this
country was minimized to a mere 100,000.
In this country, where an Armenian is DavutoÄ?lu's chief advisor now,
non-Muslims formerly did not have any chance to join civilian or
military bureaucracy and they could not even be assigned to the lowest
positions in the public sphere. All non-Muslim citizens were
blacklisted and followed by the state, and benefactors backing the
foundations were threatened.
Far from being allowed to construct any new churches, the
already-existing minority churches, schools and other foundation
buildings were demolished.
Non-Muslims were suppressed in economic, cultural and psychological
terms with violent means such as the Property Tax, the 1934 Thracian
pogroms and the 1955 Istanbul pogrom. The Turkish state regularly
abused minorities and violated their rights and the articles regarding
minorities according to the Lausanne Treaty, which was highly praised,
since it was Turkey's founding agreement. And the West shut its eyes
to all of this, because Turkey was a member of NATO.
Last year, the-then Prime Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an announced a
condolence message to the 1915 genocide victims, which broke another
taboo. He said: "We recognize and share your pain." This binding
official statement was announced on the official website of the Prime
Ministry.
Of course, there are still problems. For example, Heybeliada Halki
Seminary is still closed. And it is known that this is postponed due
to the unacceptable discriminatory practices carried out in Greece
against Turks residing in western Thrace. We have always argued that
this approach of the government is highly inequitable, but we have
never gotten into any trouble for our opinion.
At the closed-door session of the lunch on Jan. 2, requests regarding
this issue were also discussed. Moreover, the Syriacs' right to build
churches, schools and hospitals has been re-instated. They had been
deprived of this right due to the fact that the word "Syriac" was not
stated in the Lausanne Treaty. With this latest development, Syriacs
are now preparing to build a church in Istanbul for the first time in
modern Turkish history, and the state will provide them land.
Surely there are other criteria for democratization. But I know that
the health of a democracy can be measured by the conditions of
minorities in that country, particularly these days, when racism has
reached its peak in the U.S. and the EU.
http://www.dailysabah.com/columns/markar_esayan/2015/01/06/minorities-turkey-and-the-quality-of-its-democracy
From: Baghdasarian