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  • F18News Summary: Bulgaria; Kazakhstan; Turkey;

    FORUM 18 NEWS SERVICE, Oslo, Norway
    http://www.forum18.org/

    The right to believe, to worship and witness
    The right to change one's belief or religion
    The right to join together and express one's belief

    ========================================== ======
    22 November 2006
    BULGARIA: AHMADIS BARRED "BECAUSE IT IS AGAINST THE RELIGIONS THAT PEOPLE
    FOLLOW HERE"
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?arti cle_id=874
    Bulgaria's small Ahmadi Muslim community is concerned by persistent
    attempts by a local prosecutor and the national state Religious Affairs
    Directorate to strip it of its legal status, Forum 18 News Service has
    learnt. One of the grounds of official Bulgarian hostility is that other
    countries - such as Pakistan - also attack the religious freedom of
    Ahmadis, who are considered to be heretical by many Muslims. Public
    Prosecutor Maria Zoteva told Forum 18 that the community must be closed
    "because it is against the religions that people follow here," but could
    not provide any examples of laws broken by the Ahmadi community or its
    members. Ivan Jelev, head of the state Religious Affairs Directorate, told
    Forum 18 - wrongly - that the community had misrepresented itself and also
    that his office had unspecified "documents" requiring it to view the
    Ahmadis negatively. "All we want is to be free to meet, talk and pray
    together," Ahmadi leader Muhamad Ashraf told Forum 18.


    21 November 2006
    KAZAKHSTAN: STATE BULLDOZES HARE KRISHNA COMMUNE, BIDS TO CHAIR OSCE
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id =873
    As Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is in London seeking support for
    his bid to chair the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe
    (OSCE), state authorities began today (21 November) bulldozing the only
    Hare Krishna commune in the region, Forum 18 News Service has learnt. The
    costs of the demolition are being imposed by the authorities on the Hare
    Krishna devotees and OPON riot police have sealed off the commune. "At
    present a bulldozer is knocking down one house," Hare Krishna devotee
    Anastasia told Forum 18 from the site as she watched the destruction,
    "while a further four are being knocked down by hand." Officials carrying
    out the destruction have refused to speak to Forum 18. The demolition
    contradicts earlier Kazakh official assurances that all actions in the
    authorities long-running attempt to take over the commune would be frozen.
    Religious freedom and other human rights in Kazakhstan have been for some
    years under increasing threat from President Nazarbayev's government.


    24 November 2006
    KAZAKHSTAN: WILL REST OF HARE KRISHNA COMMUNE NOW BE DESTROYED?
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?arti cle_id=876
    With almost a quarter of the Hare Krishna-owned homes in their Sri
    Vrindavan Dham commune on the outskirts of Almaty already destroyed,
    community members are afraid that the rest of the 66 homes - including
    their temple - could be next. "The community is in shock, but they are
    determined to defend their homes and place of worship," community member
    Govinda Swami told Forum 18 News Service. He says destruction of the
    temple would be "devastating". Neighbouring houses owned by non-Krishna
    devotees have not been touched and sources have told Forum 18 that
    President Nursultan Nazarbayev's brother has designs on the property.
    Local administration chief Bagdad Akhmetayev refused to say why the homes
    were being destroyed when the court merely ordered the devotees' eviction,
    telling Forum 18 "I simply came to watch the demolition and I am not
    prepared to make any comment. Please ask the court bailiffs directly." The
    bailiffs refused to talk to Forum 18. Police prevented OSCE officials from
    reaching the village during the 21 November destruction.


    22 November 2006
    TURKEY: POPE BENEDICT XVI'S VISIT AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM
    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=875
    Pope Benedict XVI's visit to Turkey spotlights religious freedom, notes
    Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio
    <http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-ku lturen/themen/menschenrechte>.
    Some are optimistic that the new Foundations Law will resolve property
    problems for the organisations allowed to non-Muslim communities, but this
    has yet to be seen. Astonishingly, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of
    Foreign Affairs Abdullah Gul may not meet Pope Benedict. Officials fear
    that the Pope may discuss the problems facing Catholics and other
    religious minorities, including Muslim minorities. In this personal
    commentary for Forum 18 News Service <http://www.forum18.org>, Dr Oehring
    maintains that - despite hopeful signs such as several Protestant churches
    gaining association status - there has been little overall progress this
    year in religious freedom. For example, minorities such as the Syrian
    Orthodox do not have the legal right to undertake activities essential for
    a functioning peaceful religious community.
    * See full article below. *


    22 November 2006
    TURKEY: POPE BENEDICT XVI'S VISIT AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM

    http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=875
    By Dr. Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
    <www.missio-aachen.de>

    Rarely can religious freedom in Turkey have been more in the spotlight
    than in the time surrounding the first visit to Turkey as pope by Benedict
    XVI. His visit - due from 28 November to 1 December - comes shortly after
    the latest European Union (EU) accession report, which again criticised
    Turkey for lack of progress on religious freedom, though in mild tones
    that surprised some commentators. Domestically, the papal visit comes just
    after President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's approval of a new Foundations Law,
    approved by parliament on 8 November. Some optimistically argue that the
    Foundations Law will resolve property problems for the organisations
    allowed to some non-Muslim ethnic/religious communities. Whether this will
    be the case has yet to be seen.

    The impending papal visit is complicated by Benedict's recent remarks on
    Islam during a speech in Germany in September, where he quoted harsh
    medieval criticism of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. As recently as 14
    November, Professor Ali Bardakoglu, head of the government's Diyanet
    (Presidency of Religious Affairs), himself made hostile remarks about Pope
    Benedict and said how hurt Turks were by the pope's remarks in Germany.

    Turkey's Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, will be out of the country
    during the visit. But, astonishingly, the Deputy Prime Minister and
    Minister of Foreign Affairs, Dr Abdullah Gul, is still considering whether
    or not to meet Pope Benedict. It appears that senior officials fear they
    would be forced to respond, if the Pope hands over a memorandum on the
    problems facing the Catholic Church and other religious minorities -
    including Muslim minorities - in Turkey (see F18News 26 July 2006
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=817>).

    The general mood - including among officials and the media - is that for
    the Pope even to raise any problems would be wrong as, in their view,
    Turkey's religious minorities do not have problems. They claim that
    minorities have the possibility to worship and that to complain over their
    lack of recognised legal status does not reflect Turkish reality.
    Therefore, they oppose any discussion at all of these issues.

    At a meeting in Venice in mid-November, organised by the international
    Catholic movement Pax Romana, the chief advisor to Prime Minister Erdogan
    said openly that there is no point looking back to the past over the way
    religious minorities have been treated, as mistakes lie on both sides.
    Instead, he insisted, everyone should look to what Turkey will be like in
    fifteen or twenty years. He claimed that the future will be bright, with
    no problems for religious minorities. However, he did not identify which
    problems still exist and how he thinks they will be overcome. There seemed
    to be no wish on his part to discuss the current reality.

    The controversial Article 301 of the Penal Code, which punishes
    "anti-Turkish statements", has been used against numerous writers and
    journalists. But its recent use to prosecute members of religious
    minorities marks a new turn. Compass Direct reported that two Protestants
    were charged in October under this article in Silivri, near Istanbul,
    after being accused of "illegal missionary activities". Interpreting
    non-Muslim missionary activity as "anti-Turkish" is alarming. Amid
    worldwide criticism of Article 301, Prime Minister Erdogan has said that
    by-laws would be produced to explain the aims of the article and what
    "Turkishness" actually means. However, this appears to be merely an
    attempt to avoid a real answer. Rumours circulate in Turkey that this
    article will be abolished, but no-one knows if this will happen.

    Even were Article 301 to be abolished, there are other articles in the
    Penal Code which could be used by nationalist prosecutors and judges to
    punish what they regard as "crimes against Turkishness".

    The one positive point in the new Foundations Law is that it will require
    the return of properties confiscated from community foundations. Yet a
    serious obstacle to this is that many of these properties have been sold
    to third parties. Discussion of the Foundation Law has been going on for
    many years (see F18News 13 December 2005
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=704>), so it should have
    been possible by now to resolve the problem of cases where return is
    impossible.

    Some religious communities with many such foundations, such as the
    Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Armenian Patriarchate, have argued that
    this law - if it gains Presidential approval - will allow them finally to
    get back some of their properties. But they also point to the law's
    failure to resolve the issue of confiscated properties sold to third
    parties.

    Discussion on this aspect of the Foundations Law has focused on whether
    religious communities unable to recover their properties should be
    compensated financially, but the reaction to such suggestions has been
    harsh. Earlier this year, parliamentary deputies argued in the parliament
    that this would be a "waste of money", complaining that "trillions and
    trillions" of (old) Turkish lira would have to go to Christians and Jews
    in compensation for property taken earlier. At the same time, Turkish
    newspapers have worried that not paying compensation for property sold to
    third parties would lead to hundreds of court cases, with many likely to
    end up in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. So a solution
    to this problem is at present blocked.

    The new Law does not address a key complaint: the impossibility for
    religious communities to run their own theological training
    establishments. This featured in the European Commission's Proposal for
    the Accession Partnership 2005 (see F18News 13 December 2005
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=704>). The Ecumenical
    Patriarchate has long hoped for progress on reopening its seminary on the
    island of Heybeliada (Halki in Greek) in the Sea of Marmara - closed down
    in 1971 along with the Armenian seminary - but progress has been elusive.

    In mid-October, parliament discussed a proposal to reform the law on
    private schools. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) introduced
    changes that would have enabled non-Muslim religious minorities that
    currently cannot run their own schools - such as the Syrians and Chaldeans
    - to introduce them on a par with existing Greek Orthodox and Armenian
    schools. The main opposition party, the traditionally secularist
    Republican People's Party (CHP), fiercely attacked the proposal, arguing
    that it would represent a sell-out of Turkey.

    Crucially for the Alevi Muslims, the second largest religious community in
    Turkey, neither the Foundations Law nor the possible new law on private
    schools would benefit them. Neither the Alevis - nor the Protestants or
    Catholics - have community foundations. Nor would the Foundations Law give
    legal status to any religious community, whether Muslim or not (see F18News
    12 October 2005 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 670>).

    The EU report
    <http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/key _documents/2006/Nov/tr_sec_1390_en.pdf>
    - released on 8 November - was blunt that religious minorities still face
    problems, but the section on religious freedom was far shorter than in
    previous years and was not very precise over what these problems exactly
    are. The short section devoted to religious freedom is not long enough to
    explain the real problems. It is possible this was done deliberately:
    perhaps EU officials did not want to make Turkey appear in too negative a
    light. A reader of this section of the report would need an informed
    knowledge of the situation to understand what the EU is saying in the
    Turkish context. The informed reader would regard it as a fairly mild
    summary of the many problems that exist, but the uninformed reader would
    mistakenly conclude from the EU report that the situation was not too bad.

    The response in Turkey to the EU report was that it was not as bad as many
    had expected. Liberals and some journalists said they expected some
    condemnation and pointed out that it had been fairly mildly presented.
    Pro-government activists say that despite accusations in earlier reports,
    this one was not so bad.

    These reactions come against a backdrop of hostility to such normal
    religious activity as the peaceful sharing of non-Islamic beliefs, which
    may have been a factor in the February 2006 murder of Fr Andrea Santoro
    (see F18News 9 February 2006
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=724>). The complexity of
    Turkish social attitudes to religious freedom is rarely understood and
    addressed (see F18News 19 January 2006
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=716>).

    As for the impending papal visit, it is important to bear in mind that the
    Turkish public will not be present in large numbers at any speaking event.
    Any views they might have of the visit - and of the Pope's addresses and
    comments during it - will be formed by how the local media covers the
    visit.

    Pope Benedict's visit may have no impact on religious freedom in Turkey,
    though this may depend on what he says at his meeting with the diplomatic
    corps in the Holy See's Nunciature in Ankara. When he visits the state's
    Diyanet - which controls Islam in this proclaimed secular state - he will
    most probably be almost alone and the Vatican is unlikely to release
    details of the meeting.

    As head of the Diyanet under an Islamist-leaning government, Professor
    Bardakoglu has more influence than he could expect to have under a
    secularist government. If the Pope complains about the way Christians and
    other minority faiths are treated, Bardakoglu will probably deny that
    Christians have any problems. At the same time, he is likely to argue
    (correctly) that non-Islamic faiths are outside the remit of his office,
    which is responsible only for Sunni state Islam.

    The forthcoming visit has also seen a minor spat between the Ecumenical
    Patriarchate and the government, with officials attacking the Patriarchate
    for insisting that journalists covering the trip seek accreditation from it
    as well. Officials declared bluntly that the patriarchate is a Turkish
    institution and regarded its demands as "impertinence". However, both
    sides sought to close down the issue.

    Despite the murder of Fr Santoro, some improvements have occurred in the
    overall religious freedom situation. There is more freedom of speech and
    openness about the old taboos - even over whether the mass killing of
    Armenians in the late Ottoman period constituted genocide. This year, four
    Protestant churches gained a substitute legal status as religious
    associations - Derneks - but not as religious communities. (This was under
    a legal provision that applicants for association status, which are not
    rejected automatically, receive this status after a set period.) Only one
    Protestant church gained association status in 2005.

    A breakthrough occurred in September 2006, when the Altintepe Protestant
    Church in Istanbul became the first church building since the founding of
    the Turkish Republic in 1923 to be ratified as a new place of worship.
    This followed a four year bureaucratic and legal battle. The church had
    been functioning since 2003 under another legal identity, as a Vakif
    (Foundation), but the law has since been changed closing the Vakif option
    for others.

    A total of five Turkish Protestant churches are now recognised as Derneks
    or associations, as well as one international church in Antalya. But, as
    Compass Direct has noted, due to restrictions in planning and local
    authority laws more than 20 legal cases are in the Turkish courts
    requesting recognition of Protestant places of worship. Several cases are
    also being taken to the European Court of Human Rights.

    Association or Dernek status appears to be a pragmatic solution - at least
    for the Protestants - to the problem of their lack of any legal status at
    all (see F18News 12 December 2005
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=670>).

    But religious communities such as the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the
    Armenian Apostolic Church - whose existence in the land of Turkey
    pre-dates the arrival of the Turks and Islam - are unlikely to want to
    accept such a lowly legal status.

    Lack of legal recognition of religious communities as religious
    communities forces one to the conclusion that there has been little
    overall progress this year in the religious freedom situation (see F18News
    26 July 2006 <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 817>).

    Islam remains a branch of the state and no other religious community -
    including Muslim minorities - has or can get legal status as a religious
    community (see F18News 12 October 2005
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=670>).This problem of
    non-recognition means that religious communities do not have the legal
    right to take the internal spiritual and financial decisions necessary for
    the normal functioning of a peaceful religious community. Without legal
    status as a religious community, religious communities cannot buy, use,
    sell or remodel property. They remain unable to maintain educational
    establishments to train religious personnel, including priests, ministers
    or rabbis. Despite the impossibility of training their own personnel
    within Turkey, they do not have the right to bring in personnel from
    abroad. Personnel from outside Turkey have come in under ad hoc
    arrangements, which could be revoked at any time.

    De facto, religious communities can undertake some activities, but this is
    not enshrined in any law. For example, the two main Syrian Orthodox
    monasteries, in Turkey's south-east, run monastic schools for boys, where
    they are trained in the liturgical language, in catechism and in singing
    for the liturgy. This is essential for the celebration of the Orthodox
    liturgy. Some boys go on to become catechists and choir leaders.
    Officially the schools are merely boarding houses, but the state knows
    what they are doing although, technically, this is illegal.

    However, the problem remains as to how Syrian Orthodox girls can be
    educated, especially as the Syrian population in south-eastern Turkey
    faces such pressure from local Muslim Kurds and Turks. Syrian Orthodox
    girls in school are routinely threatened with rape or kidnap. The Syrians
    remain at the mercy of attackers and it is unclear who they are.

    There has been no change to the recording of religious affiliation on
    identity cards - a major problem which lays religious minorities open to
    social ostracism or hostility (see F18News 26 July 2006
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?articl e_id=817>).

    A recent poll by TESEV, an Istanbul-based think-tank, found that Turks did
    not believe that Islam is gaining in influence. Although some question
    whether this is true - and the growth in the number of women wearing
    Islamic headscarves on the streets of Ankara and Istanbul might be an
    indication that the influence of Islam could be growing - I believe that
    nationalism, not Islamic sentiment or any resurgence of Islam lies behind
    the restrictions on minority faiths. (END)

    - Dr Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
    <http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-ku lturen/themen/menschenrechte>, a
    Catholic charity based in Germany, contributed this comment to Forum 18
    News Service. Commentaries are personal views and do not necessarily
    represent the views of F18News or Forum 18.

    For further overviews by Dr Oehring of religious freedom in Turkey, and of
    the need for fundamental reform of the Constitution, see
    <http://www.forum18.org/Analyses.php?region =68>.

    For commentaries by the Anglican Chaplain in Istanbul on the roots of
    Turkey's attitude to religious freedom see
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=716>, and on Turkish
    society's reaction to the murder of Roman Catholic priest Fr Andrea
    Santoro, see <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 724>.

    For a personal commentary on religious freedom under Islam, see
    <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article _id=227>

    A printer-friendly map of Turkey is available at
    <http://www.nationalgeographic.com/xpedition s/atlas/index.html?Parent=mideast&Rootmap=turk ey>

    Adobe Acrobat PDF and printer-friendly views of this article are available
    at <http://www.forum18.org/Archive.php?article_id= 875>.
    (END)

    © Forum 18 News Service. All rights reserved. ISSN 1504-2855
    You may reproduce or quote this article provided that credit is given to
    F18News http://www.forum18.org/

    Past and current Forum 18 information can be found at
    http://www.forum18.org/

    From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
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