Turkish premier showcases Turkey as a center for religions
By SUZAN FRASER

AP Worldstream
Dec 08, 2004

In a bid to showcase Turkey as a country that respects religions, Prime
Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday inaugurated a mosque, a
synagogue and church, just days before the European Union is to decide
on whether to start membership talks with the largely Muslim nation.

The side-by-side houses of worship are located in a park in the
Mediterranean resort of Belek, near Antalya, and will mainly serve
foreigners vacationing in the region. The church is partitioned into
Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox sections.

“Beyond its symbolic importance, this project gives the message of
peace and brotherhood to whole world,” Erdogan said.

European leaders will decide in a Dec. 16-17 summit whether to begin
EU accession talks with Turkey.

The 25-member bloc has expressed concern about Turkey’s treatment
of religious and ethnic minorities and has said that improved rights
for minorities are a condition for Turkish membership.

Dutch Minister for European Affairs Atzo Nicolai attended the ceremony
and urged Turkey to decrease “state intervention in worship.”

“As friends, we owe it ourselves to be critical … of each other,”
Nicolai said.

The inauguration of the mosque, church and synagogue was made possible
after Turkey changed laws that restricted the opening of houses of
worship other than mosques to boost its chances of EU membership.

Earlier this month, a nearby Protestant church that was consistently
denied permission to open finally held its first service.

Erdogan, a devout Muslim, is keen to project a positive image of the
country’s treatment of minorities. He was the first premier to visit
a chief rabbi _ visiting him shortly after suicide attacks on two
synagogues last year_ and earlier this week sent a message to Jewish
citizens for the holiday of Hanukkah.

On Sunday, Erdogan also presided over the opening of an Armenian
museum _ a rare gesture by a Turkish premier.

However, problems remain.

“Turkey’s Catholic citizens cannot claim a title of ownership on the
churches they use, let alone request permission for new ones when
there is need,” the Rev. Alphonse T. Sammut, a Vatican representative
in Turkey, said Wednesday.

Turkey is also under pressure to reopen an Orthodox theology school on
an island outside Istanbul that trained generations of church leaders,
including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, until it was closed by
Turkish authorities in 1971.

Turkey is also locked in a dispute over the status of Bartholomew,
the Istanbul-based spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians.

Turkey has long refused to accept any international role for the
patriarch and argues the patriarch is merely the spiritual leader of
Istanbul’s dwindling Orthodox community of less than 3,000.

The EU has said “religious freedom is subject to serious limitations
as compared with European standards.”

But Erdogan has warned that EU risks being branded a “Christian club”
if it excludes Turkey.

“If the EU is not a Christian club the Turkish population, which
is Muslim, should not pose any problem,” he said in an interview
published in Italian daily La Stampa Wednesday. “We want to have
a dialogue between civilizations within the EU. Turkey will play a
fundamental role in this process.”