WCC asks for more rights for religious minorities

December 8, 2009 (WCC) - 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. By making it ever so easy to convert from Islam to Christianity, to open a new church, or to use churches already owned but not allowed worship rights by the State. 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.