Greek Patriarch makes history in Turkish Parliament

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew and Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation head Kuryakos Ergün speak at Turkish Parliament, demanding equal treatment and rights for Turkey’s non-muslim communities
Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew (C) said they were leaving the meeting with hope and were extremely grateful. “Unfortunately there have been injustices in the past. These are all slowly being rectified. A new Turkey is being born,” he said. AA photo

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew (C) said they were leaving the meeting with hope and were extremely grateful. “Unfortunately there have been injustices in the past. These are all slowly being rectified. A new Turkey is being born,” he said. AA photo

Göksel Bozkurt Göksel Bozkurt göksel.bozkurt@hurriyet.com.tr

Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew made a landmark presentation at Parliament’s constitution-making commission yesterday, demanding equal treatment for non-Muslim minorities, including an equal share of public funds for religious services and education.

“It is the first official invitation to non-Muslim minorities in Republican history. We don’t want to be second-class citizens. Unfortunately there have been injustices in the past. These are all slowly being rectified. A new Turkey is being born. We are leaving the meeting with hope and are extremely grateful,” the patriarch told reporters after the meeting.

Bartholomew made the presentation behind closed doors at the Constitution Conciliation Commission, tasked with drafting a new constitution for Turkey.

The patriarch stressed his community’s biggest problem was the fact that it did not have legal entity status and requested that the new charter guarantees that, sources told the Hürriyet Daily News.
He renewed demands for the re-opening of the Greek Orthodox seminary on Heybeliada (Halki) island off Istanbul, stressing that they accepted vocational school status for the seminary under the supervision of the Education Ministry.

“We want equality in all realms, including education and the bureaucracy. Minorities are virtually non-existent in the higher posts of the bureaucracy,” he was quoted as saying.

Lausanne Treaty
Academic Emre Öktem, a member of the team accompanying the patriarch, suggested that the new constitution should make a reference to the 1924 Lausanne Treaty, which guarantees the rights of Turkey’s Greek Orthodox, Jewish and Armenian communities, and explicitly define the offense of “hate crimes.”

In the 18-page paper that Bartholomew gave the commission, he also said that the new constitution should ensure that minorities benefit equally from public funds allocated for religion and education. “The state has never extended financial assistance to any church or minority school,” he said.

The head of the Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation, Kuryakos Ergün, also met with the commission and similarly hailed the occasion. “It’s a historic day. Syriacs have lived in these lands for 6,000 years. We are not guests here,” Ergün told reporters. Ergün highlighted the need to give Syriacs official minority status similar to that granted by the Lausanne Treaty to Jews, Greeks and Armenians. Non-Muslim minorities should be represented at the Directorate of Religious Affairs, he said.

SYRIACS TO VISIT TURKISH PARLIAMENT NEXT WEEK

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan ZiflioÄŸlu

A delegation of Syriac Christians from Turkey and abroad will meet with Parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Commission on Feb. 27 in Ankara after months of striving to get an appointment. “We do not believe the Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew possesses any authority to speak on behalf of all Christian minorities,” Tuma Çelik, the head of the European Syriac Union, told the Hürriyet Daily News on behalf of the delegation. “At least, he does not represent us, the Syriacs. As such, he reserves no right to speak in our name. It is quite natural, however, for him to talk about ongoing problems in Turkey in a more general sense while he is laying down his own demands.” The delegation that is set to meet with the commission as part of ongoing efforts to frame a new constitution will include Evgil Türker, the head of the Federation of Turkish Syriac Associations, Sabri Akbaba, the representative of Syriac institutions in Germany, and Tuma Özdemir, the representative of the Istanbul Mesopotamia Culture and Solidarity Association, as well as Çelik.

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