USCIRF ALERTS ON FREEDOM OF RELIGION VIOLATIONS IN TURKEY

PanARMENIAN.Net
April 30, 2010 – 12:46 AMT 07:46 GMT

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom
(USCIRF) announced its 2010 recommendations to Congress, the White
House, and the State Department, which included keeping Turkey on
its "Watch List" as one of the most serious offenders of freedom of
religion towards non-Muslim communities, Archon News reported.

"Over the past few months USCIRF has visited a number of human rights
‘hot spots’ where freedom of religion is obstructed and related human
rights are trampled," said Leonard Leo, USCIRF chair. "This year’s
report offers new and important policy solutions to improve conditions
where foreign policy, national security, and international standards
for the protection of freedom of religion can and should intersect.

The report’s conclusion is clear-the Administration must do more!"

A fifteen-page section is devoted to the current situation in Turkey
in which the Commission begins:

"Serious limitations on the freedom of religion or belief continue to
occur in Turkey. Turkey’s active civil society, media, and political
parties influence the climate for religious freedom and help define
the debate about the appropriate role of religion in society. Turkey
has a democratic government, and the country’s constitution calls for
the protection of the freedom of belief and worship and the private
dissemination of religious ideas. Nonetheless, the Turkish government’s
attempt to control religion and its effort to exclude religion from
the public sphere based on its interpretation of secularism result
in serious religious freedom violations for many of the country’s
citizens, including members of majority and, especially, minority
religious communities. The European Union (EU) continues to find that,
despite some improvements since its 2001 bid to join the EU, "Turkey
needs to make additional efforts to create an environment conducive
to full respect for freedom of religion in practice." An additional
factor influencing the climate during the past year includes the
alleged involvement of state and military officials in the Ergenekon
plot, which included alleged plans to assassinate the Greek Orthodox
and Armenian Orthodox patriarchs and to bomb mosques."

The report continues saying, "U.S. policy should place greater emphasis
on Turkey’s compliance with its international commitments regarding
freedom of religion or belief. For instance, the United States should
encourage the Turkish government to address the long-standing lack of
full legal recognition for religious minorities, including Alevis;
Greek, Armenian, and Georgian Orthodox; Roman and Syriac Catholics;
Protestants; and Jews.

Regarding the restrictions on legal status of non-Muslim minorities,
the report states: "The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, a peace treaty
signed between Turkish military forces and several European powers
that formally established the Republic of Turkey, contained specific
guarantees and protections for all non-Muslim religious minorities
in Turkey. Since that time, however, the Turkish government has
interpreted those treaty obligations as limited to the Greek Orthodox,
Armenian Orthodox, and Jewish communities. Nevertheless, despite this
unique status, legal recognition of these three religious minority
communities, and guarantees cited, have not been implemented in
Turkish law or practice, and the Turkish government continues to use
the denial of legal personality to these groups as a mechanism to
restrict their rights of religious freedom.

"In Turkey today, there are about 65,000 Armenian Orthodox
Christians, 23,000 Jews, and approximately 1,700 Greek Orthodox
Christians. When Turkey was founded in 1923, there were 200,000
Greek Orthodox Christians in the country. By 1955, the number had
fallen to 100,000; that year, pogroms against the Greek Orthodox
resulted in the destruction of private and commercial properties,
desecration of religious sites, and killings. Due to ongoing threats,
the Greek Orthodox community’s numbers continued to decline to their
present level.

"For more than fifty years, the Turkish government has used convoluted
regulations and undemocratic laws to confiscate hundreds of religious
minority properties, primarily those belonging to the Greek and
Armenian Orthodox communities, as well as those of the Catholic and
Jewish communities."

Further reporting about the restrictions faced by the Ecumenical
Patriarchate and Armenian Patriarchate, state: "The Turkish state
also has closed minority communities’ seminaries, denying these
communities the right to train clergy, and has interfered with
their internal arrangements and leadership decisions. For example,
the Turkish government still does not recognize the Greek Ecumenical
Patriarchate as a legal entity. "

"The Armenian Orthodox community, which is Turkey’s largest non-Muslim
religious minority, also lacks a seminary in Turkey to educate
its clerics and today only has 26 priests. In 2006, the Armenian
Patriarch submitted a proposal to the Minister of Education to enable
the Armenian Orthodox community to establish at a state university a
faculty on Christian theology with instruction by the Patriarch. To
date, the Turkish government has not responded to this request.

Additionally, like the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, the Armenian
Patriarch lacks legal personality. The Armenian Patriarch reportedly
receives about 300 email threats daily, and has two secret police
bodyguards who accompany him at all times. "Due to the Turkish law
banning the public wearing of clerical garb, foreign Christian clergy,
including Georgian, Greek and Russian Orthodox, were required in 2009
to remove their church vestments before they were allowed to enter
Turkey. Christian clerics in Turkey who are Turkish citizens cannot
wear their clerical dress anywhere in public."