SYRIACS MAKE THEIR MARK IN HISTORIC MEET WITH GUL
Hurriyet
July 30 2012
Turkey
The details regarding a recent meeting in which Turkish President
Abdullah Gul hosted the leaders of eight of Turkey’s minority
foundations on July 27 in Istanbul have been revealed. Accordingly, the
three participant Syriac foundations made their mark at the meeting,
especially regarding the ongoing conflict regarding the Mor Gabriel
(Deyrulumur) Monastery case and the relocation of the Syriac Church’s
patriarchate from Beirut to Turkey.
During the meeting, which was planned to be 45 minutes but took about
1.5 hours, Gul paid great attention to the problems communicated but
didn’t make any remarks about any problem, the Hurriyet Daily News
has learned.
The Syriac foundations also demanded the return of their historical
patriarchate building in Mardin, which has been turned into a museum.
In previous months, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu held a series of
negotiations with Syriacs on the topic and proposed bringing Beirut’s
Catholic and Damascus’ Syriac Kadim patriarchates to Turkey.
Besides the patriarchate issue, Syriac’s Kadim Church foundation
put the historical Mor Gabriel Monastery in Mardin on the agenda,
which has been the subject of a conflict between Turkey and the Mor
Gabriel Foundation.
Other minority leaders also brought education problems in minority
schools and expectations regarding citizenship rights to the table.
Foundations Law
Yedikule Surp Pırgic Armenian Hospital Foundation President Bedros
Å~^irinoglu also joined the meeting to represent Armenian foundations.
“We have already been speaking about our problems generally with Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Deputy Prime Minister Bulent Arınc.
So, instead of repeating our problems to the president, we wanted to
express our regards for his support of the Minority Foundations Law,”
he said.
Laki Vingas, a council member of the Foundations Directorate General
and the organizer of the meeting, told the Daily News the meeting
had been held under very good conditions, the leaders of minorities
expressed their gratitude for the Foundations Law and return of
properties and they spoke about education problems.
In addition to Å~^irinoglu and Vingas, Syriac Catholic leader Zeki
BaÅ~_demir, Armenian Catholic Foundation leader Bernard Sarıbay,
Syriac Kadim Foundation representative Sait Susin, Greek Foundation
representative Andon Parisyoanos, Jewish Community representative Sami
Herman and Bulgarian community representative Vasil Liyaze attended
the meeting.