Turkey and its Christians; Persecution complex

"On the edge of a village near Midyat is a stone
building whose fate may test Turkey's commitment to the European Union.
Thirty Kurdish families in Bardakci use it as a mosque. But members
of Turkey's Syrian Orthodox Christian minority (or Syriacs) insist it
is St Mary's church, which served their community for 200 years until
civil strife and economic hardship forced them out. They want it back.

Some 3,000 Syriacs in the south-east say their land and houses have
been seized, not just by Kurds, but also by the state. In Kayseri,
an American couple were recently sent death threats by e-mail because
they are "Christian." A Protestant pastor in Izmit province received
a menacing letter and found a red swastika painted on his door. In
Tarsus, a New Zealand missionary was beaten up and then told to leave
by the mayor.

"Protestants are the most persecuted group in Turkey," says Ihsan
Ozbek, pastor of the Kurtulus Protestant church in Ankara. That may be
exaggerated, but respecting the religious freedom of non-Muslims will
be critical to Turkey's hopes of joining the EU. For a while Turkey
did well. Laws against Christians repairing churches were scrapped,
enabling the Syriacs to restore the ancient Mar Gabriel monastery
near Bardakci. Another law was passed to let non-Muslim religious
foundations buy land. Timoteus Samuel Aktas, the metropolitan of
Mar Gabriel, proudly shows off a new recreation centre for monks at
his monastery. Yet recent attacks against Syriacs, including the
detonation of a landmine under a car, have rung alarms - and made
fellow Syriacs in Europe reconsider plans to return."

"One shot was fired by the state institution that micro-manages
religious life in Turkey, when it issued a sermon on March 11th to
be preached at some 75,000 officially registered mosques. The sermon
talked of the dangers posed to national unity by missionaries, who
"work as a part of a plan to cut the ties of our citizens with the
[Islamic] faith." This was followed by a statement by Mehmet Aydin,
the minister for religious affairs, calling missionary activities
"separatist and destructive." He was praised by nationalists, who fear
that Europe has plans to convert Turks to Christianity. It matters
little that only 300 souls have defected in the past eight years -
or that proselytizing is legally permitted."
ANN/Groong -- Turkey and its Christians; Persecution complex