Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Oct 13 2013
Non-Muslim communities want deeds, not words from gov’t
The Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary on Heybeliada was the only school
where Turkey’s Greek minority used to educate its clergymen. It was
closed in 1971 during a period of tension with Greece. (Photo:
Reuters, Osman Orsal)
13 October 2013 /BÃ`Å?RA Ã-ZERLÄ°, ANKARA
Representatives of non-Muslim minorities are cautiously optimistic
about the possible benefits that a recently unveiled democratization
package could have for the proselytizing of religious beliefs but
stress the importance of implementation.
`The implementation of the regulations mentioned in the
democratization package is the most significant point that would help
to decide whether they will ease our grievances regarding the
communication of our beliefs,’ Soner Tufan, the spokesman of the
Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey, told Sunday’s Zaman. He
added that the mere inclusion of such issues in the package is a
promising step for non-Muslim groups in Turkey.
While explaining the details of the package on Sept. 30, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip ErdoÄ?an said it included amendments that will
make it easier for groups and individuals to freely practice their
religion. He said the new measures will protect religious freedom.
Though they praised the reforms in the package, representatives of
non-Muslim groups say they would have liked to see more and deeper
changes regarding non-minority rights. Mardin Metropolitan Saliba
Ã-zmen told Sunday’s Zaman that he considered the package a significant
contribution and a first step for more reforms, especially when the
Mor Gabriel Monastery issue is taken into account.
The text of the package states that all legal obstacles in the way of
the Syriac community taking possession of the Mor Gabriel Monastery `
a Syriac monastery in Midyat, Mardin province, whose ownership has
been disputed since 2005 — will be removed.
Ã-zmen added, however, that the community needs more support to keep
its churches alive. `We need clergyman raised and educated in Turkey
to continue our efforts in the church,’ he said.
Under current law, non-Muslim religious communities are barred from
educating clergy on Turkish soil. The democratization package makes no
mention of the Greek Orthodox Halki seminary on the island of
Heybeliada, which the government has been considering reopening.
The Greek Patriarchate, which is under the protection of international
law as guaranteed by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, has been complaining
about the status of the Halki seminary and other property issues in
Turkey for a long time. Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I has
repeatedly said that the reopening of the seminary is of vital
importance to the survival of the Greek Orthodox clergy. Established
in 1844 on the island of Heybeliada off Ä°stanbul, the Halki seminary
was closed in 1971 under a law that put religious and military
education under state control.
The package also includes provisions that introduce harsh punishments
for crimes committed purposefully against members of an ethnic or
religious minority. If the package passes in Parliament, a council
tasked with fighting discrimination will also be established.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer, told Sunday’s Zaman that
though he doesn’t want to be pessimistic about the efforts of the
government, he is concerned about the implementation of the package.
`We need to wait and see whether non-Muslim citizens, as the victims
of discrimination, will be members of the council,’ he said.
The democratization package also aims to reduce hate crimes by setting
harsher punishments. ErdoÄ?an said prison sentences for crimes
involving racist, hate or discriminatory speech or attacks will be
lengthened. He noted that someone convicted of a hate crime could face
between one to three years of jail time, depending on the type of the
crime.
Cengiz said the reforms, if properly implemented, could prevent crimes
against non-Muslim groups like the murders of three missionaries
employed at the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya in 2007 and the
assassination of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the
Turkish-Armenian weekly Agos.
Dink was shot dead on Jan. 19, 2007, by ultranationalist teenager Ogün
Samast outside the newspaper’s offices in Ä°stanbul in broad daylight.
Samast, tried in a juvenile court because he was a minor at the time
of the crime, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison. On Jan. 17,
2012, the Ä°stanbul 14th High Criminal Court handed Yasin Hayal, a
prime suspect in the Dink case, a life sentence for inciting Samast to
commit murder.
On April 18, 2007, Christians Necati Aydın, UÄ?ur Yüksel and German
national Tilmann Ekkehart Geske were tied to chairs, stabbed and
tortured before they were killed at the Zirve Publishing House in the
southeastern Anatolian city of Malatya. The publishing house they
worked for printed Bibles and Christian literature. Suspects Abuzer
Yıldırım, Cuma Ã-zdemir, Salih Gürler and Hamit Çeker were apprehended
at the scene and taken into custody, while another suspect, Emre
Günaydın, jumped from a third-story window in an attempt to escape
from police and was taken into custody after being treated for
injuries he sustained in the fall.
Evaluating the reforms and their effects on non-Muslim minorities,
Sait Susin, the head of the Syriac Church of the Virgin Mary
Foundation, claimed that introducing new laws won’t help. `Without
adequate measure to address prejudices, laws may not solve the
problems that we face. It would be more effective to educate and raise
awareness in society,’ he said.
Pakrat Estukyan, the current editor of Agos, said that the reforms
introduced in the package have no social basis since propagating one’s
religious beliefs, which could be called a missionary activity, is
still perceived as an attack against Islam although it is really just
communicating a belief that one has adopted.