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”
(). 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]
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