Protect religious minorities???? I got bigger things to worry about this time of year!
Posted on 11/17/2006 12:31:37 PM PST by Maeve
The European Union has accused Turkey of failing to protect religious minorities - just two weeks before an historic visit by Pope Benedict XVI to the Muslim country. "Turkey's approach to minority rights remains unchanged," noted a 2006 progress report published by the European Commission in Brussels. "Non-Muslim religious communities have no access to legal personality and continue to face restricted property rights. They encounter problems in the management of their foundations and in recovering property by judicial means." Here the lack of access to "legal personality" means that the communities are not recognised as legal subjects, so they cannot act as Churches or religious organisations, but only as individuals. "Foundations" refers to the charities or other organisations they might run.
The report was published in the run-up to a December summit of the EU, which began accession talks with Turkey in October 2005. It said the Turkish Parliament had passed 148 bills to strengthen democracy and the rule of law, as well as accepting European Court judgements and ratifying international human rights instruments. However, it added that minority faiths, including Syriac Christians and Alevi Muslims, faced constant pressure, while attacks had been reported on clergy and places of worship of other religious communities.
"Although the mandatory indication of religious affiliation in some personal documents, such as ID cards, was abolished in April, such documents still include information on religion, leaving open the potential for discrimination," the report continued. "Restrictions on the training of clergy and on foreign clergy to work in Turkey remain. Turkish legislation does not provide for private higher religious education for these communities."
Christians have often complained of discrimination in Turkey, most of whose 67 million inhabitants are Sunni Muslims. The Islamist-led government of premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed to religious freedom as a precondition for EU admission in 2015, although the 32,000-member Catholic Church, which has vicariates in Istanbul and Anatolia and an archdiocese at Izmir, is still demanding juridical recognition.
The Pope visits Ankara, Istanbul and Ephesus from 28 November to 1 December as a guest of the Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate, and will hold talks with government and Muslim leaders, as well as Catholics and Jews.
The EU report said Turkey had abolished the death penalty and prohibited torture, but had made mixed progress in areas such as judicial independence and public administration, as well as in protecting freedom of expression and association, and the rights of women, children and the disabled.
It added that Patriarch Bartholomew I had not been permitted to use his title publicly, or to reopen an Orthodox seminary at Heybeliada, which was closed by the Government in 1971. The document also cited the shooting dead of an Italian priest, Fr Andrea Santoro, at Trabzon on the Black Sea in February, which was one of five violent attacks on Catholic clergy so far this year.
The report is the latest by the EU, which also criticised Turkey in November 2005 for "only very limited progress" on religious rights, and warned that non-Muslims faced "violent or threatening harassment". Turkish MPs passed a law last weekend allowing religious minorities to own property, although this was dismissed as insufficient by the Ecumenical Patriarchate, for failing to cover the return of confiscated lands and buildings.
Seventy-five per cent of victims of religious persecution are Christians, the International Institute for Religious Freedom has found. Its director, Catholic theologian Thomas Schirrmacher, told the Berlin weekly Welt am Sonntag that of those who were murdered for their religious beliefs the percentage was even higher, 80 per cent. Christians were persecuted in Islamic theocracies and Communist countries such as China and North Korea, he said.
Ping
Right now, I'm just hoping the pope doesn't get killed when he visits.
Long term, Turkey is a serious problem. A perfect example of what President Johnson would have labeled "better to to have them in the ten pissin' out."
ping
What if one day all the Turks just started out headed east and went to Turkmenistan?
Protect religious minorities???? I got bigger things to worry about this time of year!
They did that once around the time of the First World War and a few million Armenians turned up missing.
They also refused to let our soldiers use turdkey as a staging area to enter Iraq and it cost American soldiers lives. And they did it for a larger bribe.
Screw turdkey.
--They also refused to let our soldiers use turdkey as a staging area to enter Iraq and it cost American soldiers lives. And they did it for a larger bribe.
Screw turdkey.--
THat was largely due to Jacques Chiraq's scheming. He promised to help Turkey get into the EU, in exchange for Turkey refusing to let US troops go thru its territory into N. Iraq.
Maybe it's time to give Rick Warren a call. He'll fix everything. He just got back to Syria and wants us to know how well Muslims and Christians get along. You see all our intelligence and events we hear about are ALL WRONG.
Who knew the gobbler had such responsibilites. ;-)
ROTFLMAO!!!! Since when did they ever TRY to protect minorities? They murdered what? 1.5 million Armenians and another few hundred thousand Kurds? Too much.
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Oh, you're saying that turkey was a victim of french scheming? Bull. Turkey has always sold itself to the highest bidder with no regard to loyalty.
I think that is an excellent idea. Why don't we help the Turks to go home to Turkmenistan, and then the Greeks, Armenians, Assyrian Christians, and Kurds can have their lands back.
Yeppers.
--Turkey has always sold itself to the highest bidder with no regard to loyalty.--
I find it hard to believe that the U.S. of A. would have been outbid by France. But it's possible.
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