wfn.org | WCC NEWS: Turkey: Religious minorities' rights on international church delegation's agenda

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World Council of Churches - News Release

Contact: +41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507 6363 media@wcc-coe.org
For immediate release - 08/12/2009 09:49:51

CHURCHES ADVOCATE FOR RELIGIOUS MINORITIES' RIGHTS IN TURKEY

An international ecumenical delegation visiting Turkey at the
end of November has encouraged the country's authorities to
improve the situation of religious minorities. The exercise of
religious freedom, the legal status of churches, including
property issues, and the right to religious education were on the
agenda. 

The five-member delegation representing the World Council of
Churches (WCC) and the Conference of European Churches (CEC)
visited the Muslim-majority Republic of Turkey on 23-27 November.

In Istanbul, the delegation met with the Ecumenical Patriarch
Bartholomew, with Archbishop Aram Atesian from the Armenian
Patriarchate, and with representatives of the Syrian Orthodox
community. It also met representatives of the Jewish community.
In Ankara, the country's capital city, the delegation met members
of the Syrian Orthodox Mor Gabriel Monastery led by their
Archbishop Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas. 

Amongst the difficulties faced by churches in Turkey are the
non-recognition of the "ecumenical status" of the Ecumenical
Patriarch and of his patriarchate, as well as the obstacles to
the re-opening of the Theological School of Halki (Heybeliada).
The Armenian Patriarchate reports restrictions to property rights
involving several church, school and hospital buildings, as well
as neglect and destruction of religious and cultural heritage.
The Syrian Orthodox community deplores the dispute over the Mor
Gabriel Monastery.

According to the US State Department's Annual Report on
International Religious Freedom, there is "substantial abuse of
religious freedom in Turkey". The Council of Europe's
commissioner for human rights has pointed to shortcomings
regarding minorities' cultural and property rights. And a report
by the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation has
acknowledged that the country is "failing on minority property
rights". 

The delegation raised the churches' concerns in meetings with
Vice-Prime Minister Bülent Arınç; with officials of the
Presidency of Religious Affairs, which is the country's highest
Islamic authority; and with the president of the National
Education, Culture, Youth and Sport Committee of the Grand
National Assembly of Turkey. 

The Turkish authorities expressed their commitment to enabling
all religious minorities in the country to fully exercise their
right to freedom of religion. Another issue addressed at those
meetings was the role churches and international ecumenical
organizations can play to actively assist the country's
integration into the European Union. 

The same issue featured in a meeting at the headquarters of the
daily newspaper Zaman, where the delegation discussed with
Turkish journalists the role of the media with regard to
religious minorities. 

Members of the ecumenical delegation were: Rev. Kjell Magne
Bondevik, moderator of the WCC Commission of Churches on
International Affairs; Rev. Dr Konrad Raiser, former WCC general
secretary; Rev. Lena Kumlin, legal adviser on EU affairs to the
Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland; Rev. Rüdiger Noll, CEC
associate general secretary; and Christina Papazoglou, WCC
programme executive for Human Rights. 

WCC member churches in Turkey:

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/member-churches/regions/europe/turkey.html

>Conference of European Churches:
>http://www.ceceurope.org

Commission of Churches on International Affairs:
http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3610

>WCC programme work on human rights:
>http://www.oikoumene.org/?id=3111

Additional information:Juan Michel,+41 22 791 6153 +41 79 507
6363media@wcc-coe.org

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith,
witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical
fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings
together 349 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches
representing more than 560 million Christians in over 110
countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic
Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Dr Samuel Kobia, from
the Methodist Church in Kenya. Headquarters: Geneva,
Switzerland.