ANKARA: A new report released Wednesday follows a trend from the US State Department in criticizing Turkey for restricting the rights of non-Muslim religious groups in the country.
The latest report focused on the challenges non-Muslim religious groups have faced in operating houses of worship, holding board elections for their foundations, and obtaining exemptions from mandatory religion courses in schools, which are in violation of the European Court of Human Rights’ 2013 ruling.
The US also expressed concerns when Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan reconverted the historic Chora Church, one of Istanbul’s most celebrated Byzantine buildings, and the famed Hagia Sophia into mosques last summer.
Court case against priest evokes bitter memories for Turkey’s Assyrians Turkey’s tiny Assyrian community views a jail term handed to an Assyrian priest on “terrorism charges” as an official strong-arming tactic, while Assyrians around the world call for dismissal of the case. A Muslim Turkish soldier stands guard outside the Mor Gabriel monastery on Jan. 11, 2003 in Midyat, Turkey. The soldier was part of a bodyguard unit for some high-ranking Turkish army officers visiting the ancient monastery. The 1,600-year-old Mor Gabriel is located in a part of Turkey that was one of the orginal cradles of the Christian church. - Chris Hondros/Getty Images
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Turkey’s broad-based anti-terrorism law, open to interpretation that permits the abuse of the human rights of its ethnic and religious minorities, demands serious scrutiny by the international community. At the center of the latest example is Father Aho Sefer Bilecen, a Syriac Christian monk and head of the Monastery of Mar Yaqoub. On April 7, a Turkish court sentenced him to two years and one month in prison on terrorism-related charges.
The crime for which he must spend the next two years of his life in prison? One day, in 2018, he gave bread and water to two people who knocked at the door of his monastery and asked for some means of sustenance, not an unusual occurrence in the rural areas of Turkey. The strangers happened to be members of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, a designated terrorist group.
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