Tag Archives: Country: Turkey

“‘We feel disturbed when we hear that a minaret has been banned in Europe. We should be protecting freedom of religion for different religions in our own territory.”

Christian Today: “Turkey allowed Christians to hold a rare service at a politically sensitive monastery for the first time since the modern-day country’s creation nearly nine decades ago.”

Associated Press: “For most of the last century, Turks were told to look askance at the Ottoman Empire. Nostalgia for the 1453 conquest of Constantinople and other early triumphs was fine – but the excesses of the sultans were the stuff of decay, no model for modern Turkey. Today, the legacy of the Ottomans is enjoying a makeover.”

Forum 18: “Turkey continues to interfere in the choices made by the Jewish, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic communities of who should lead them, Forum 18 News Service notes. The government makes no attempt to hide this interference, which raises serious questions in relation to its international human rights commitments to allow religious communities to select the leaders of their choice.”

Christian Science Monitor: “Turkey is a member of a select geopolitical club: rising democracies. This club encompasses not only Turkey, but also India, Brazil, Indonesia, and South Africa. Their emergence is a crucial – but untold – development of the 21st century. Rising democracies offer the West an opportunity to perpetuate the international order founded in the wake of the Second World War.”

Washington Times: “German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle appeared on Wednesday to offer support for Turkey’s stalling bid to join the European Union, saying in Istanbul that the country’s ‘direction is toward Europe.’”

Eurasianet.org: “The legal hurdles still threatening the Patriarchate’s existence are formidable, and in an interview last December, the church’s leader, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, told the Milliyet newspaper: ‘We are without oxygen. The Patriarchate is dying.’ Bartholomew is regarded as the spiritual leader of the world’s 300 million Eastern Orthodox Christians, and his church has existed in Istanbul, formerly know as Constantinople, for more than 1,700 years.”

John F. Cullinan writing at National Review Online: “There are fewer than 60 Catholic priests in all of Turkey, and yet Bishop Luigi Padovese was the fifth of them to be shot or stabbed in the last four years, starting with the murder of Fr. Andrea Santoro in 2006, also by an assailant shouting, ‘Allahu Akbar!’ … What’s going on? Why has traditionally secularist Turkey, with its minuscule Christian community (less than 0.2 percent of the population), lately become nearly as dangerous for Christians as neighboring Iraq? And why has this disturbing pattern of events so far escaped notice in the West? In a nutshell, all these violent acts reflect a popular culture increasingly shaped by Turkish media accounts deliberately promoting hatred of Christians and Jews.”

Asia News: “In a unanimous decision, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg ruled that Turkey must return the former Greek Orphanage on Büyükada Island, the largest of the Princes’ Islands, back to Fener Greek Patriarchate. This concludes the long legal case between the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople and Turkish authorities. The case had begun in 1997 when Turkey tried to use various legal means to take the building away from the Patriarchate in order to upgrade the area without compensation.”

Catholic Culture: “The murder of Bishop Luigi Padovese in Turkey is a reminder of the dangers facing Christians in Turkey and elsewhere in Europe, said Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi at a Mass for the slain prelate in his native Milan. Cardinal Tettamanzi said that Italian Catholics need “to heed the cry—or better, the lament” from Turkey after the death of Bishop Padovese . . . ”

Catholic World News quoting Asia News:  ”Bishop Louis Pelâtre, vicar apostolic of Istanbul, described as ‘calumnies’ the assertions attributed to Murat Altun, the bishop’s driver and admitted murderer, that he had killed Bishop Padovese because he was defending himself from the bishop’s homosexual advances . . . Witnesses said they heard the bishop cry out for help. But more importantly, is that they heard screams of Murat immediately after the murder. According to these sources, he climbed on the roof of the house shouted: “I killed the great Satan! Allah Akbar!”  This call coincides perfectly with the idea of beheading, making sense that it is like a ritual sacrifice against evil. This correlates with the murders of ultranationalist groups and Islamic fundamentalists who apparently want to eliminate Christians from Turkey . . . ”

Catholic News Agency: “Bishop Luigi Padovese, Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, was reportedly stabbed to death in Iskendurun, Turkey on Thursday by his driver, who also served as his aide.” | Vatican Radio

Voice of America News: “White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs Tuesday referred repeatedly to the language in a U.N. Security Council statement condemning the acts which resulted in the loss of life . . . ”

AP: “Turkey is demanding that the United States condemn the botched Israeli raid on an aid flotilla that ended with Israeli soldiers killing nine activists . . . ”

Hurriyet Daily News: “An administrative court in Istanbul has ruled that the child of an atheist couple can be exempt from compulsory religion classes at a primary school, Anatolia news agency reported Tuesday . . . Along with Christian and Jewish citizens, atheist people should have the right to be exempt from religion classes, the court said, adding that the Turkish Constitution and the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms protect freedom of belief.”

EU Observer: “A fresh survey by the International Lesbian and Gay Association has said that the predominantly Roman Catholic and Orthodox Christian countries of eastern Europe have the worst track record on gay rights. Ukraine and Russia scored the lowest on the ILGA index, closely followed by Belarus, Moldova and Turkey. In the EU, Cyprus, Latvia and Poland are the least progressive. Belarus police on Saturday (15 May) cemented the country’s reputation by violently breaking-up a small, 20-person-strong Slavic Pride march.”

AP: “Activists have protested a Turkish minister for her recent remark that homosexuality is a disease.”

Europe News: “Turkey is today considered a rising power in the Middle East and Europe. But just a few centuries ago, the Turks ruled large chunks of both regions under the banner of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish-led forces drove deep into Europe, even reaching the gates of Vienna twice before being defeated. Now they’re back . . . So far, Austrian officials have yet to comment on the Turkish government’s expanded influence. ‘They close their eyes because they want to be elected again and the growing Islamic population is for them a target group for the next election,’ said Zeitz.”

Reuters: “A conference in Mardin in southeastern Turkey declared the fatwa by 14th century scholar Ibn Taymiyya rules out militant violence and the medieval Muslim division of the world into a ‘house of Islam’ and ‘house of unbelief’ no longer applies.”

NY Times (Reuters): “Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told Turkey’s judges on Tuesday they had no right to oppose constitutional reform plans that pit him against a secular elite alarmed by what it sees as growing Islamist influence.”

Hurriyet Daily News: “A board to prevent discrimination is going to be founded according to a draft law that the Interior Ministry completed recently under the government’s move for democratization, the daily Milliyet reported Wednesday. The draft law identifies nine different types of discrimination which are a person’s gender, race, language, religion, ethnicity, sexual identity, social status, marital status, political views, health situation, age and disability status. The draft law prescribes fines charging between minimum of 1,500 Turkish Liras and maximum of 500,000 liras.”

Hurriyet Daily News: “The Council of Europe has amended an article of its declaration on children’s rights after Turkey objected to a specific article alluding to gay marriage . . . The council considered Turkey’s objection and amended the relevant article. Originally, the article stated, ‘Currently, the family [is a concept] composed of different lifestyles and children in Europe grow up in family forms that can change during the life of children.’”

Religion Clause Blog: “The European Court of Human Rights yesterday held that Turkey violated Art. 9 (freedom of thought, conscience and religion) of the European Convention on Human Rights when it convicted members of a religious group known as Aczimendi tarikatÿ for the clothing they wore.”

The Guardian: “Turkish police have recovered the body of a 16-year-old girl they say was buried alive by relatives in an ‘honour’ killing carried out as punishment for talking to boys.
The girl, who has been identified only by the initials MM, was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman.”

Religion Clause Blog: “In Sinan Isik v. Turkey [in French], (Eur. Ct. Hum. Rts., Feb. 2, 2010), the European Court of Human Rights, by a vote of 6-1, upheld a complaint by petitioner that the government of Turkey refused to replace ‘Islam’ on his identity card with “Alevi.”

The Independent: “Europe’s main security and human rights watchdog said yesterday that Turkey was blocking some 3,700 Internet sites for ‘arbitrary and political reasons’ and urged reforms to show its commitment to freedom of expression.”

Religion Clause Blog: “Ekklesia yesterday reported on Pope Benedict XVI’s remarks (full text) earlier this month on receiving Turkey’s new ambassador to the Holy See.”

Asia Times: “After the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power in Ankara, many in the West referred to a new Turkish foreign policy called ‘neo-Ottomanism,’ suggesting a revival of the intellectual, political and social influence of the Ottoman Empire, which departed the scene 92 years ago.”

Assyrian International News Agency: “The head of the Eastern Orthodox Church Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople said in an interview on a American television show last week that Turkey’s leaders, including the prime minister, have been unresponsive to concrete concerns he raised about religious inequality in the country.”

Christian Post: “Malatya’s Third Criminal Court on Friday took further steps to connect the murders of three Christians in southeastern Turkey to a Turkish military plan to destabilize the pro-Islamic government.”

Assyrian International News Agency: “It’s been another difficult year for Christians in Turkey and it is finishing just as it began, with problems. Early in December, three Muslims entered the Meryem Ana Church, a Syriac Orthodox church in Diyarbakir, and confronted the Reverend Yusuf Akbulut, according to a Dec. 15 report by Compass Direct News, an agency specializing in reporting on religious persecution.”

EuropeNews: “In a decision many hope will lead to greater religious freedom in Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) found that a Turkish court ruling barring a church from starting a foundation violated the congregation’s right to freedom of association.”

Religion News Blog: “In response to a Swiss vote banning the construction of new mosque minarets, a group of Muslims this month went into a church building in eastern Turkey and threatened to kill a priest unless he tore down its bell tower, according to an advocacy group.”

Assyrian International News Agency: “Turkey’s increasingly militant Islamic influence should prompt the European Union to reject its efforts to join the organization out of hand, according to Jonathan Racho, an analyst with International Christian Concern.”

Hurriyet Daily News: “Greek Cyprus’ Orthodox Church said it has sued Turkey for allegedly preventing worship at religious sites in Turkish Cyprus.”

The Right to Wear Headscarves and Other Religious Symbols in French, Turkish, and American Schools: How Goverment Draws a Veil on Free Expression of Faith
Oriana Mazza, 48 J. Cath. Legal Stud. 303 (2009)

“Part IV shows that while the U.S. does not have a nationwide ban, this issue comes up in schools more than we might realize. This Section explains how the Supreme Court’s shift to the neutral and generally applicable test of Employment Division v. Smith in 1990, has left open the possibility of infringing on the right to wear headscarves and suggests the standard under which courts should scrutinize school policies that burden students’ freedom to wear religious symbols.”

Religious Intelligence: “Turkish religious communities as diverse as the Alevi Muslims, Catholics, the Greek Orthodox, Protestants, and the Syrian Orthodox Church have seen no significant progress in 2009 in resolving long-standing property problems, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio notes in a commentary for Forum 18 News Service.”

AsiaNews.it: “About 90 tombstones are broken. Incidents of this nature are not rate in the city but the local press failed to report it. Only recently and through a movie, have young Turks begun to learn about past anti-Christian pogroms. Ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew visits the cemetery in question.”

Today’s Zaman: “Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promised democratic reforms on Saturday in a rare meeting with Turkey’s religious minority leaders, highlighting the issue of minority rights, a key stumbling block in Turkey’s European Union membership bid.”

Coalition on Abortion/Breast Cancer Media Advisory: “A retrospective study conducted by Dr. Vahit Ozmen and his colleagues at the Istanbul Medical Faculty and Magee-Women’s hospital reported a statistically significant 66% increase in breast cancer risk among women who’d had any abortions.”

SSRN: “This Article discusses the framework modern democratic governments must begin to institute if they are to protect freedom of religion and effectively respond to a unique threat to safety. Five countries – the United States, the United Kingdom, Turkey, Israel and the Netherlands – will be examined. My primary thesis is that civil societies cannot afford to continue to treat religion as an “untouchable” subject – we must begin to understand what religion is in order to know when and how it may be appropriately limited for the benefit of society.”

Leonard Link: “Now there is a new court martial appeals decision that shows them taking an end-run around Lawrence and Marcum, U.S. v. Harvey, 2009 WL 1508376 (Air Force Court of Criminal Appeals, April 9, 2009). For some reason, they’ve …

AP: “Authorities fired tear gas and stun grenades at hundreds of Muslims in central Athens on Friday as they protested a Greek policeman’s alleged defacement of a Quran owned by an Iraqi immigrant.”

Hartford Courant (AP): “A congressionally backed panel said today that religious freedoms were deteriorating in Russia, Turkey and four other nations that were added to a watch list of countries where people’s rights to worship as they please or not to worship at all are at risk.”

ACLJ: Our international affiliate, the European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) has just filed a critical amicus brief before the European Court of Human Rights in support of two applications concerning Iranian converts to Christianity who have been denied asylum by the Turkish government.

“We will convey . . our deep appreciation for the Islamic faith, which has done so much over the centuries to shape the world — including in my own country.”

The Independent: “So-called ‘honour killings’ in Turkey have reached record levels. According to government figures, there are more than 200 a year – half of all the murders committed in the country. Now, in a sinister twist, comes the emergence of ‘honour suicides’. The growing phenomenon has been linked to reforms to Turkey’s penal code in 2005. That introduced mandatory life sentences for honour killers, whereas in the past, killers could receive a reduced sentence claiming provocation. Soon after the law was passed, the numbers of female suicides started to rocket.”

Reuters: . . . In a remote village near the Turkish-Syrian border, a land dispute with neighboring villages is threatening the future of one of the world’s oldest functioning Christian monasteries . . . The row began when Turkish government …

The Independent reports: . . . The 86 defendants, prominent secularists and right-wingers united only by their authoritarian ultra-nationalism, stand accused of attempting to remove the government of Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan by force. The indictment against them, a 2,455-page …

The International Herald Tribune reports:  When Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and his Islamic-rooted party came under fierce fire this summer from secularists, who came close to persuading the country’s supreme court to bar both from politics, he …

The Religion Clause Blog reports: “Media around the world, including the New York Times and London’s Guardian, are reporting on Wednesday’s decision by Turkey’s Constitutional Court that stopped short of ordering dissolution of the ruling AK (Justice and Development) Party …

AsiaNews.it reports: “Sadly famous for being the site of the assassination of the Italian priest Andrea Santoro (in 2006), and where the killing of Armenian journalist Hrant Dink was planned (last year), the Turkish city of Trabzon is in an …

The Christian Science Monitor reports: “. . . Turkey’s top prosecutor is arguing that the AKP and its 70 top members – including the prime minister and president – should be banned for aiming to impose Islamist rule . . …

WorldNetDaily reports: One of the very few legally operated Protestant churches in Turkey is fighting for its life – again. The church has battled through 15 court cases in the predominantly Muslim nation over the last six years, and it’s …

Spiegel Online reports: Turkey’s highest court upheld a ban on wearing headscarves in universities on Thursday. The court is likely to rule on a far more explosive issue later this year: the legality of the ruling Islamist-rooted AKP party. In …

Part II provides an overview of the principle of secularism generally, and in Turkey specifically, and describes how Turkish secularism differs from the Western notion of secularism.

Religion Clause Blog reports: “Hurriyet reported yesterday that Turkey’s Constitutional Court has struck down constitutional amendments adopted in February designed to lift the ban on wearing of Muslim headscarves at universities.”

The emergence of a new legal order – constitutional theocracy, which is now shared in one form or another by dozens of countries in the developing world – provides important insights into the sociopolitical role of constitutionalism in predominantly religious settings.

Acting on an application by the Istanbul governor’s office, the prosecutor said that LambdaIstanbul violated a constitutional provision on the protection of the family and an article banning bodies “with objectives that violate law and morality.”

Turkey’s Office of Religious Affairs has announced that Muslims may forsake Islam for another religion.

Religion Clause blog reports: “The struggle between religious and secularist forces in Turkey has reached a new level. According to today’s Turkish Daily News, the country’s chief prosecutor has filed a 162-page indictment against the ruling Justice and Development Party …

Soner Cagaptay reports on the importance of the turban and its relationship to larger religious and political issues in Turkey.