Papal Visit Focuses Attention on Minority Rights Issues in Turkey

Pope Benedict XVI's four-day visit to Turkey, which concluded December 1, appears to have fulfilled its main aims. It succeeded in promoting closer ties between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches, and repaired the pope's image among Muslims.

At the outset of his trip, Benedict XVI sought to cultivate better ties with Turks by offering an endorsement of Turkey's European Union membership drive. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

During a subsequent meeting with Ali Bardakoglu, the chief of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, the pope called for an "authentic dialogue" between Christians and Muslims. Such conciliatory words and gestures helped ameliorate damage done back in September, when he gave a speech quoting a Byzantine emperor who linked Islam and Mohammed with violence. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

The visit also stimulated dialogue between the Catholic and Orthodox hierarchies. Benedict XVI had a "fraternal encounter" with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, according to a joint statement. The two pledged that the churches would work jointly to promote Christianity. "We cannot ignore the increase of secularization, relativism, even nihilism, especially in the Western world. All this calls for a renewed and powerful proclamation of the Gospel, adapted to the cultures of our time,' the joint statement said.

Another important aspect of the papal visit was that it raised awareness about conditions faced by Turkey's Christian minority, including about 3,000 Greek Orthodox Christians, along with another 70,000 Armenians. The pope, in voicing support for Turkey's EU ambitions, called on Ankara to promote religious freedom. During a mass on November 29, Benedict XVI characterized Turkey's Christians as "a small minority which faces many challenges and difficulties daily."

Although guaranteed the same rights as Muslim citizens, Christians and Jews in Turkey have long complained about the legal hurdles they face. Working out of a small compound hemmed in by a working class neighborhood, the Orthodox patriarchate – which has been in Istanbul for 1,700 years, since the city was known as Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire – is the frequent target of nationalist protests while the occasional grenade has been lobbed over its walls.

Over the decades it has seen numerous properties, including schools and cemeteries, confiscated by the state. Its theological seminary was closed down in 1971 and has yet to be reopened, leaving it unable to train its own clergy. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archive].

Ankara also refuses to recognize the patriarchate's status as ecumenical – or global – in reach, saying that it is responsible only for tending its dwindling Orthodox community in Turkey. "Minority rights of non-Muslims are the issue that we have had the least progress on over the last six or seven ears. It's a common theme in all the [EU] reports," says Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, an assistant professor of political science at Istanbul's Isik University. "Other difficult issues have been dealt with more successfully, while with the issue of non-Muslim minorities that has not been the case."

The recent debate in parliament over a bill regulating the establishment of minority foundations illustrated for many Turkey's continuing struggle with the issue of its non-Muslim peoples.

Although originally envisioned as a reform-minded bill that would ease the bureaucratic hurdles and burdens that minority foundations currently face, legal experts say the version of the bill that passed offered little improvement over the past.

"The legal thinking behind the new [law] is the same, approaching minority foundations with a lack of trust," says Ester Zonana, a lawyer who advises Turkey's Jewish community. "This new law even takes us a bit back."

The new law, for example, offers no way for minority group to reclaim, or seek restitution for the thousands of properties – schools, churches, cemeteries and other real estate – that have been confiscated by the Turkish state over the last few decades.

Even more disturbing for some was the tone of the parliamentary debate on the bill, much of it centering on whether giving greater rights to minority groups would give foreign powers greater influence in Turkey. When the question of property restitution came up, some parliamentarians asked whether allowing Turks of Greek origin to reclaim property could force Turkey to hand back Istanbul's historic Hagia Sophia, the Byzantine church turned into a mosque by the Ottomans, and then into a state museum in 1935.

"I was very angry during the debate. They were not treating us as citizens. Why should I be treated differently than a Muslim?" says Mihail Vasiliadis, editor of Apoyevmatini, a daily Greek newspaper based in Istanbul. "The new law doesn't offer us any solutions. It doesn't solve any of our problems."

Some representatives of Turkey's Armenian community are more hopeful that the law can be used to recover eight properties belonging to Istanbul Armenian church that were confiscated between 1987 and 1993. "It's a positive step towards wiping out the effects of 1974," says Diran Bakar, a Turkish Armenian lawyer. He was referring to a Turkish Appeal Court's decision - made as ethnic tensions between Greeks and Turks on Cyprus spilled over into war – holding that real estate acquisitions made by non-Muslim foundations since 1936 had to be returned to their previous owners. The ruling led to the piecemeal confiscation of at least 4,000 properties belonging to Turkey's Jews, Armenians and Greeks.

It remains unclear whether the new legislation will ease EU concerns about minority rights protection in Turkey. The foundations bill was passed by parliament the day after Brussels released its regular report on Turkey's accession progress. The report rapped Ankara for making little or no progress in the areas of freedom of expression and religious freedom.

While freedom of worship was "generally respected" in Turkey, "non-Muslim religious communities ... continue to face restricted property rights," the report stated. It recommended that Turkey should remove restrictions barring the full operation of all religious communities by adopting framework legislation in line with European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) case law.

The most widespread criticism voiced by minority-group representatives is that the new law continues to make a distinction between Muslim and non-Muslim foundations. "Legal reform is all very well," says Lakis Vingas, a businessman and prominent member of Turkey's Greek community. "But mentalities are more important. In Turkey, minorities are