Armenian, Assyrian and Hellenic Genocide News

UN report urges Turkey to better protect Religious Minorities
by United Nations - Agence France Presse
Posted: Sunday, October 22, 2000 07:16 am CST

Turkey should tighten the wording of its laws so as to better protect its small religious minorities, and should do more to combat intolerance, according to a UN report released Thursday.

It said that although the 1982 Turkish constitution guaranteed religious freedom and belief, there were obstacles to non-Muslim groups owning property and establishing their own schools.

State policy on religion was "exceedingly complex" and contrasted sharply with "the categorical assertion by certain authorities that such policy is a model of tolerance and non-discrimination," the report said.

It said the nationalism of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish state, had been elevated "into an official ideology, or even a new religion, with the status of absolute truth."

It recommended that the authorities "establish a clear principle whereby nationalism is not to be used against minority religious communities."

About 99 percent of Turkey's 66 million people are Muslim, but estimates of the numbers of non-Muslims vary. The report pointed out that the last census of religious affiliation and ethnic identity was taken in 1965.

The 30-page report was written by Abdelfattah Amor, special rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights, who visited Turkey from November 30 to December 9, 1999.

During his visit, he met government and court officials including the ministers of justice, interior, and human rights and the president of the constitutional court, as well as leaders of religious minorities and NGOs.

Amor said that leaders of Turkey's 25,000 Jews were "unanimous in insisting that the situation of their community was wholly satisfactory."

But he said that, unlike Greek and Armenian Christians, Jews had made no claim to land within Turkey, while Israel and Turkey had close relations.

He quoted the Armenian Orthodox patriarch as saying that his followers, estimated at between 60,000 and 93,000, enjoyed full freedom of worship, but the patriarchate had no legal status.

Similarly, the patriarchate of Turkey's 2,500-4,000 Greek Orthodox Christians could not own property or receive revenue, he said.

The Greek Orthodox and the smaller Syriac communities were slowly disappearing, Amor said.

He recommended that the government guarantee minorities the rights to establish their own places of worship, and to teach their religion and train clergy.

He also said the government "should ensure that Islam does not become a political tool, a situation that could escalate in ways that would promote religious extremism."

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