EURO COURT TAKES A STAND
By Mark D. Tooley

FrontPage magazine.com
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Sept 18 2008
CA

Does good ever come from the European Court? Apparently yes! Or at
least occasionally. The court ruled in favor of the Orthodox Ecumenical
Patriarchate and against the Turkish Government this summer over a
symbolically important property dispute.

Orthodox Christians in what is today Turkey once numbered in the
millions. But Islamic pressure over the centuries, continuing through
the 20th century, wore down ancient Orthodox communities through
attrition. About 30 percent of Turkey was Christian nearly a century
ago, most of them Armenian or Greek Orthodox. Today, Christians may
number fewer than 100,000 out of a population of over 60 million. And
only about 3,000 are Greek Orthodox and under the authority of the
Ecumenical Patriarch. Even under an ostensibly secular government
since the 1920’s, the dwindling Christian minority in Turkey has
suffered under various legal and social pressures, including often
insurmountable restrictions against churches retaining, much less
purchasing or developing property.

The Ecumenical Patriarch is largely restricted to a small island
of property in Istanbul. Until the European Court ruling, the
Patriarchate did not legally own any property in Turkey, including
its own administration building. Churches and related buildings, by
law, are governed by private foundations. Also by Turkish law, the
Patriarch must be Turkish born, an increasingly onerous restriction
as the number of Orthodox priests in Turkey has declined to a small
handful. With Turkey having closed the only Greek Orthodox seminary
over 30 years ago, there is a real question as to whether there will
be any Orthodox priests in future decades from whom a future Patriarch
could be selected.

The most recent dispute between the Patriarchate and the Turkish
Government involved an historical orphanage on the Turkish resort
island of Buyukada, a property that the Patriarchate bought in
1902. Since the 1930’s, the orphanage was registered as a private
foundation because Turkey would not recognize the Patriarchate as a
legal entity. Eleven years ago, the Turkish General Directorate for
Foundations (Vakiflar), which oversees non-Muslim religious groups,
seized the property after deciding the orphanage’s foundation no longer
functioned. Church properties have often been seized by the government
under this pretext, as Greek Orthodox die off or emigrate. In 1999,
the Vakiflar sought to make the orphanage legally independent of
the Patriarchate, which fought the seizure in the Turkish courts,
finally resorting to the European Court.

In July, the European Court, sitting in Strasbourg, France, ruled
that Turkey had violated the property rights clause of the European
Convention on Human Rights by seizing the orphanage without financially
reimbursing the Patriarchate. The ruling is significant because
Turkish non-recognition of property rights for non-Muslim groups is
pervasive. And if the court ruling stands, the orphanage site will
be the only property in Turkey legally assigned to the Ecumenical
Patriarchate. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom
hailed the European Court’s decision in defense of the Patriarchate’s
property, noting that Turkey chronically denies non-Muslims the
"right to own and maintain property, to train religious clergy,
and to offer religious education above high school."

According to the U.S. Commission, Turkey has "consistently used
convoluted regulations and undemocratic laws to confiscate–without
opportunity for legal appeal or financial compensation–thousands of
religious minority properties, particularly those belonging to the
Ecumenical Patriarchate and Greek Orthodox community under patriarchal
jurisdiction.

Turkey’s policies have led to the decline–and in some cases,
virtual disappearance–of some of these religious minorities on lands
they have inhabited for millennia." The dispute over the Buyukada
orphanage, with an estimated real estate value of 80 million Euros,
was the first time that the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which normally
seeks a low profile, has directly sued the Turkish Government. Turkey
has 3 months to appeal the European Court’s decision, which, unless
overturned, compels Turkey to return the property or pay for it.

"This is the first time the Ecumenical Patriarchate is recognized as
the subject of rights under international law," one of the lawyers for
the Patriarchate told the Athens News. "This is a major guarantee for
the church’s survival in Turkey." Well, at least the ruling enshrouds
the Patriarchate with some legal protection. But there are many
other petty harassments of the Patriarchate by Turkish law, which
prohibits the Patriarchate from employing the term "ecumenical" for
itself. Turkey legally acknowledges the Patriarch as only the chief
priest of the tiny Greek Orthodox minority in Turkey, even though
the international Orthodox community has recognized the Patriarch
as the communion’s senior prelate for 16 centuries. And in Turkey,
all citizens must list their religion on their identity papers,
which helps to perpetuate different treatment for non-Muslims.

The major seminary for the Orthodox in Turkey has been closed by the
government for over 30 years. And non-Turkish Orthodox priests who work
for the Patriarchate are unable to gain work visas from Turkey so they
have to continuously enter the country as tourists. In meetings with
Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and other Turkish officials who belong
to the governing Islamic party, the Patriarch has been told that wider
freedoms for his flock depend on greater opportunities for Muslims
living in Greece. The Patriarch has pointed out that Orthodox living
in Turkey are native-born Turkish citizens, while Muslims in Greece,
who do in fact have greater liberties, usually are not Greek citizens.

Secularists in Turkey sometimes defend their government’s restrictions
on religious activity by arguing that greater freedoms would assist
radical Islamists far more than the small Christian minority. But the
boxing in of Turkey’s tiny Greek Orthodox population, with the evident
hope that it and its senior Patriarch will fade away altogether into
the mists of ancient history, seems exceptionally petty. The European
Court’s defense of the Ecumenical Patriarchate’s property rights,
at least in one case, may extend to the 2,000 year old Christian
community in Turkey at least a few more years of breathing space.

Mark D. Tooley directs the United Methodist committee at the Institute
on Religion and Democracy.