‘Gov’t steps should include reopening of Greek seminary’

Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Deputy Chairman Hüseyin Çelik told Today’s Zaman that the government has to expand freedom of religion and reopen the Greek Orthodox seminary, otherwise, the government’s efforts to raise the standards of democracy would be merely words on paper.

“If freedoms are not expanded and if the Greek Orthodox seminary is not opened, there would be no meaning to efforts to change the constitution.

He was referring to the Sat. 19 religious service on Akdamar Island for the first time since World War I, as Turkey restored the 10th century Church of the Holy Cross in Lake Van in 2007 and turned it into a museum. Sunday was the first time Turkey has allowed worship there in 95 years and hundreds of Armenian Christians held a mass.

In mid-August, there was another historic mass at the Sümela Monastery in the Black Sea coastal province of Trabzon. Approximately, 3,000 Orthodox Christians gathered for the mass at the ancient monastery, after the government allowed a church service to be held there once a year in a gradual loosening of restrictions on religious expression. The mass was officiated by İstanbul-based Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew. Pilgrims from Greece, Russia, Georgia and other countries traveled to the monastery, which currently serves as a museum.

Çelik, a deputy from Van, said Turkey has not been able to meet the requirements of being a “secular state” until recently. He said the government has been fighting against the prejudice that Muslims are responsible for the restriction of freedoms of non-Muslim believers.

He stressed that the 2007 assassination of the Turkish-Armenian writer Hrant Dink and brutal murders of three Christians in a Malatya publishing house in the same year were intentionally attributed to Muslims in order to blacken them.

“We have cultural values coming from the Ottoman past. Everybody knows that back then religious minorities had a greater freedoms than today. This is what secularism and democracy requires. Islamic sensitivities also require that non-Muslims have the right of freedom of belief and worship,” he said and added it is mostly ultra-nationalist circles, who do not have any relation to being religious or conservative, that try to restrict the freedom of non-Muslims.

“They also made religious Alevis and Kurds ‘the other’ by restricting their freedoms. However, in a secular country, nobody should be able to interfere with who goes to church or synagogue or mosque. On the contrary, freedoms should be expanded to allow for the free expression of beliefs,” he said.

Çelik also said that Turkey has reached a stage where it can leave past mistakes behind.

Regarding the controversy over the cross that still has not been erected on the church steeple on Akdamar Island, Çelik said they have no problems with it. “These are not taboos anymore in Turkey,” he said.

In 2007, a cross was not placed on the church’s steeple because Turkish officials said they needed to do more research to find out if the original cross existed. Research indicated a cross existed but had never been put in its proper place.

Following an announcement made by the government that an annual one-day religious service would be allowed at the church, Turkish officials said there were practical and technical difficulties over the erection of a 100-kilogram cross in time for the service.

Clergymen from the Armenian Patriarch of İstanbul then decided to temporarily display the cross outside the church until it is erected on the church after the service when preparations are complete.

Archbishop Aram Ateşyan, deputy patriarch of the Armenian Patriarch in İstanbul, who headed the service on Sunday, recently said that the Turkish government made a promise to permanently erect the cross in one-and-a-half months.

Çelik indicated that government’s efforts to enlarge freedoms continue despite the opposition’s reactions. With regard to mosques not being able to have minarets in Switzerland and how Turkey should respond, he said that they will continue to do the right thing even if others do not.

“Sümela and Akdamar carry a lot of significance in that regard. The issue of the orphanage has almost been solved. I wish we had solved it before going to the European Court of Human Rights [ECtHR]. The seminary comes next. It is unfortunate that it has not been reopened yet. But it will be opened sooner or later. We’re doing whatever we can not to prolong that process,” he said.

A ruling by the ECtHR in June states that the Turkish government should re-register a historic Orthodox orphanage on Büyükada to the İstanbul-based Fener Greek Orthodox Patriarchate.

In August of last year, Prime Minister Recip Tayyip Erdoğan had a meeting with religious representatives of minority groups in Turkey to address their demands in a more efficient way. The Prime Minister ordered his bureaucrats in front of the media to immediately handle the long-lasting issue of property ownership.

Kezban Hatemi, a lawyer representing the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, had told Today’s Zaman that the Foreign Ministry was bold enough to tell the Prime Minister that re-registering the orphanage to the patriarchate carries “potential danger.”

The ECtHR has ordered that the orphanage be returned to the patriarchate within three months. After the ECtHR ruling, the orphanage will probably be turned into a global environmental center, as the patriarch, who has been nicknamed the “green patriarch,” told the prime minister. But the historic building has been exposed to harsh weather conditions. Çelik said restoration work is starting soon. Çelik also noted the involvement of the deep-state element in the postponement of such steps.

Dositheos Anagnostopulos, spokesperson for the İstanbul-based Greek Orthodox Patriarchate, had said they are now much more comfortable following the ongoing probe into the illegal Ergenekon group but that they need more dialogue with the government in order to discuss issues related to the Halki (Heybeliada) Seminary.

Turkey closed the school in 1971 during a period of tension with Greece over Cyprus and a crackdown on religious education that also included Muslim religious schools.

The total number of graduates from the school is 990, and some of them have become clergymen in various places in Turkey and even in Athens. The school has been well kept since there is a functioning monastery on its premises.

Anagnostopulos said the school could be opened with seven or eight students, and the instructors would most likely be Turkish citizens from the Greek minority community.