Otmar Oehring, head of the Human Rights Office at the German-based Missio organization, suggested that the European Court of Human Rights is the only realistic hope of resolving individual property cases.
He listed the problems of religious minority communities as the failure to acquire genuine legal status and have their leaders fully recognized, the need for equitable teaching about religions and beliefs in schools, the need for the right to train clergy, and the non-recognition of conscientious objection to military service. The report claimed that ultranationalist attacks on the full equality of citizens who are either not ethnically Turkish or secular or Sunni Muslims also were continuing.
According to the report, the largest group affected by property problems is the Alevis since their places of worship, the cemevis, are not recognized as such but as cultural houses.
The report claimed that there was some hope due to harmonization with the European Union and that this process would enable places of worship such as protestant churches and Jehovah’s Witness kingdom halls to be built, but that there are many obstacles to overcome because authorities still have wide discretionary powers according to the law.
The report also recalled several property cases against religious minorities such as the case of the Mor Gabriel Monastery in Mardin. Oehring claims that the case is complex and involves a three-way relationship between the monastery, the state and local Kurdish tribes.
“Many Kurds -- like many Turks -- have a deep-rooted hostility to Christians and other religious minorities, encouraged by the education system and the mass media. Powerful forces in the so-called ‘deep state’ support this intolerance,” the report stated.
According to the report, Catholics and other Christians have also been disappointed with the case of St. Paul’s church at Tarsus.
“The Turkish authorities rejected Pope Benedict XVI’s repeated appeals for the church to be handed over to the Christian community for permanent use,” the report underlined.
Another case raised in the report is the former church-run orphanage on the island of Büyükada in the Sea of Marmara which has yet to be handed back to the Greek Patriarchate despite a ruling issued by the European court.
The report recalled that when Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited Büyükada in August, he and Patriarch Bartholomew had an opportunity to discuss the future of the former orphanage building. The patriarch said he wished to use it as an ecology study center and a place for inter-religious and inter-Christian dialogue. Erdoğan suggested he would help finance such a facility.
“However, over a year after the European Court of Human Rights judgment became final, there has been no sign from the Turkish authorities as to when and if at all they will implement the judgment,” the report claimed.
It also underlined that expectations were high in 2009 for the reopening of a theological seminary on the island of Heybeliada but that so far there have been no improvements on the issue.
The report argues that a definitive solution to the property-related problems of religious communities can only be reached if all religious communities are recognized in their own right by the Republic of Turkey and if a new law describes in detail how this recognition is to be implemented.
“Until these two steps are taken, solutions to religious property problems can only realistically be expected from the European Court of Human Rights. These rulings need to be implemented within the court’s timescale, and not left to be implemented -- if at all -- by the authorities at some unspecified point in the future,” the report claimed.
Benzer Haberler 
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