February 11, 2009: Turkey: Respect Property Rights of Religious Minorities
FOR IMMEDIATE
RELEASE
February 11, 2009
Contact: Rob Schwarzwalder
Acting Communications Director,
(202)
523-3240, ext. 127
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WASHINGTON, DC -- The United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), an independent,
bipartisan Federal commission, today urged the U.S. government to raise the
importance of respecting property rights of members of diverse religious
minorities with the Turkish government, particularly with reference to the Mor
Gabriel Monastery.
For decades, Turkey's government
has attempted to confiscate lands belonging to Greek Orthodox churches.
In a current instance, on February 11 a case involving the attempted seizure by
Turkish authorities of land on which sits the 1,600 year-old Mor Gabriel Syriac
Orthodox monastery will be heard by a local Turkish court. At this
hearing, the court will determine if the 270 hectares of land belong to the
government or the monastery.
Turkish land officials have
attempted to redraw the monastery's boundary lines, claiming that when they
were rebuilt by the monastery 15 years ago, the boundaries impinged on other
land. Some village leaders have accused the local monks of "proselytism"
for communicating their beliefs and language (Aramaic) to their students.
Earlier efforts reportedly had been made to declare that the monastery had been
reconstructed illegally.
"It is essential for the Turkish
government to honor its obligations to uphold freedom of thought, conscience,
religious and belief, as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights," Gaer said.
"Moreover, the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne contains very specific protections for
religious minorities that the government cannot allow itself to neglect."
Since Turkey became an
independent state shortly after World War I, Christian minority populations
have been shrinking due to repressive government policies. The population of Syriac Christians has
fallen from 250,000 to about 20,000 and the Greek Orthodox minority has fallen
from about 200,000 to 2,500.
USCIRF previously has called on
the Turkish government to cease efforts to deny members of religious minorities
the right to own and maintain property, to train religious clergy, and to offer
religious education above high school. In court cases seeking to confiscate
land belonging to religious minorities, USCIRF has expressed concern over the
absence of the right to appeal judgments by the Turkish state in its
confiscation of properties belonging to religious minorities.
In another case indicative of
the same problem, the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously in the
summer of 2008 in a case brought by the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate
that Turkey was in violation of Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 (protection of
property) of the European Convention on Human Rights. The case concerned
an orphanage owned by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the body that leads almost
300 million Orthodox Christians worldwide, on the Turkish island of
Buyukada. USCIRF has urged Turkey to implement this ruling fully and
to return ownership of the orphanage to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, but Turkey
has yet to comply with the ruling of the European Court.