When Ahmet Sik was jailed last year on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, he had little doubt that a secretive movement linked to a reclusive imam living in the United States was behind his arrest.
“If you touch them you get burned,” a gaunt and defiant Mr. Sik said in an interview in March at his apartment here, just days after being released from more than a year in jail. “Whether you are a journalist, an intellectual or a human rights activist, if you dare to criticize them you are accused of being a drug dealer or a terrorist.”
Mr. Sik’s transgression, he said, was to write a book, “The Army of the Imam.” It chronicles how the followers of the imam, Fethullah Gulen, have proliferated within the police and the judiciary, working behind the scenes to become one of Turkey’s most powerful political forces — and, he contends, one of its most ruthless, smearing opponents and silencing dissenters.
A culture of fear surrounding the so-called Gulenists, however exaggerated, is so endemic that few here will talk openly about them on the telephone, fearing that their conversations are being recorded and that there will be reprisals.The case quickly became among the most prominent of dozens of prosecutions that critics say are being driven by the followers of Mr. Gulen, 70, a charismatic preacher who leads one of the most influential Islamic movements in the world, with millions of followers and schools in 140 countries. He has long advocated tolerance, peace and interfaith dialogue, drawing on the traditions of Sufism, a mystical strain of Islam generally viewed as being moderate.
But the movement’s stealthy expansion of power — as well as its tactics and lack of transparency — is now drawing accusations that Mr. Gulen’s supporters are using their influence in Turkey’s courts and police and intelligence services to engage in witch hunts against opponents with the aim of creating a more conservative Islamic Turkey. Critics say the agenda is threatening the government’s democratic credentials just as Turkey steps forward as a regional power.
“We are troubled by the secretive nature of the Gulen movement, all the smoke and mirrors,” said a senior American official, who requested anonymity to avoid breaching diplomatic protocol. “It is clear they want influence and power. We are concerned there is a hidden agenda to challenge secular Turkey and guide the country in a more Islamic direction.”
The movement is well known for running a network of schools lauded for their academic rigor and commitment to spreading Turkish language and culture. Gulen followers have been involved in starting one of the largest collections of charter schools in the United States. With their neatly trimmed mustaches, suits and ties, and their missionary zeal, supporters here convey the earnestness of Mormon missionaries or Muslim Peace Corps volunteers. Their eyes moisten at the mention of Mr. Gulen’s name, which is invoked with utmost reverence.
Mr. Gulen lives in self-imposed exile on a 25-acre haven in the mountains of eastern Pennsylvania. In 1999, he fled Turkey amid accusations of plotting to overthrow the secular government. Around that time, a taped sermon emerged in the media in which Mr. Gulen was heard advising his followers to “move within the arteries of the system, without anyone noticing your existence, until you reach all the power centers.”
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Saturday, April 21, 2012
Attacked Turkish Pastor Joins in Memorials for Slain Christians
After a memorial service for three Christians who were murdered in Malatya, Turkey five years ago today, an Istanbul pastor who was attacked over Easter weekend said he’s experienced hostility from Muslims nearly all his life.
Semir Serkek, 58, pastor of Grace Church in Istanbul’s Bahcelievler district, said he personally knew Turkish converts to Christianity Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske, who were brutally murdered by five young men in the southeastern city of Malatya on April 18, 2007.
“I looked at their fate with some envy, because they were young and I am old, but they left – I have gone through many things,” he said. “But they were so young, so young.”
On a day when memorial services were held for the three slain Christians in Malatya, Izmir and Elazig as well as the ones Serkek attended at both the Kozyatag Cultural Center and Gedikpasha Church in Istanbul, the pastor said the physical violence on him the evening (April 7) before Easter Sunday surprised him.
“I’ve been verbally abused for being a Christian many times, but this was the first time I was hit, so this was surprising and made me sad,” Serkek said.
Serkek was alone at Grace Church finishing preparations for the next day’s Easter celebration when at around 9 p.m. he heard frantic pounding at the door, he said. Opening it, he found four young men in their late teens who claimed they had questions and demanded to enter.
The men, whom Serkek said appeared to be about 18 years old, were agitated, and when he refused to let them in they used insulting language, he said. They threatened to kill him if he didn’t recite the Islamic testimony of faith.
“This made me uneasy, and I told them that this was a church and they should come back in the morning,” Serkek told Compass. “‘This is a Muslim neighborhood, what business does a church have here?’ they asked me, and told me again and again that if I didn’t accept the final religion I would die.”
Finally one of the men kicked Serkek in the chest. The blow threw the pastor down the entrance steps to the ground. The Muslims ran away laughing, Serkek said.
Born to a Syriac Christian background family in the southeastern city of Mardin, Serkek said that while the violence surprised him, he has known verbal abuse since childhood and especially since he started serving God and began openly sharing his faith 35 years ago.
“To be honest, I’ve experienced these things from my childhood,” Serkek said. “I know these things closely. I’m from Mardin, and I’m a Syriac Christian. We are serving actively, and we have to spread the Word to be a source of blessing. This is what we are called to do, to bless. This is how God will use us, and I believe this with all my heart.”
Two days after the attack, Turkish Director of Religious Affairs Mehmet Gormez called Serkek from Denmark, where he was traveling, to express his disappointment about the attack on him, according to local press.
“I don’t want to be ungrateful, but I also told him that these men are trained in the mosques,” Serkek said. “At least 10 times they repeated their demand that I say the kelime-i sahadet [Islamic testimony of faith]. They pressured me. They told me I will die. They had violence in them. They didn’t even know me. They used insulting language. Their goal was to provoke me.”
Serkek said he is convinced the four Muslims who attacked him did not pass by his church site by accident or impulsively. He said the attack was planned, and that if police catch them he would like to know who put them up to it.
Link
Semir Serkek, 58, pastor of Grace Church in Istanbul’s Bahcelievler district, said he personally knew Turkish converts to Christianity Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske, who were brutally murdered by five young men in the southeastern city of Malatya on April 18, 2007.
“I looked at their fate with some envy, because they were young and I am old, but they left – I have gone through many things,” he said. “But they were so young, so young.”
On a day when memorial services were held for the three slain Christians in Malatya, Izmir and Elazig as well as the ones Serkek attended at both the Kozyatag Cultural Center and Gedikpasha Church in Istanbul, the pastor said the physical violence on him the evening (April 7) before Easter Sunday surprised him.
“I’ve been verbally abused for being a Christian many times, but this was the first time I was hit, so this was surprising and made me sad,” Serkek said.
Serkek was alone at Grace Church finishing preparations for the next day’s Easter celebration when at around 9 p.m. he heard frantic pounding at the door, he said. Opening it, he found four young men in their late teens who claimed they had questions and demanded to enter.
The men, whom Serkek said appeared to be about 18 years old, were agitated, and when he refused to let them in they used insulting language, he said. They threatened to kill him if he didn’t recite the Islamic testimony of faith.
“This made me uneasy, and I told them that this was a church and they should come back in the morning,” Serkek told Compass. “‘This is a Muslim neighborhood, what business does a church have here?’ they asked me, and told me again and again that if I didn’t accept the final religion I would die.”
Finally one of the men kicked Serkek in the chest. The blow threw the pastor down the entrance steps to the ground. The Muslims ran away laughing, Serkek said.
Born to a Syriac Christian background family in the southeastern city of Mardin, Serkek said that while the violence surprised him, he has known verbal abuse since childhood and especially since he started serving God and began openly sharing his faith 35 years ago.
“To be honest, I’ve experienced these things from my childhood,” Serkek said. “I know these things closely. I’m from Mardin, and I’m a Syriac Christian. We are serving actively, and we have to spread the Word to be a source of blessing. This is what we are called to do, to bless. This is how God will use us, and I believe this with all my heart.”
Two days after the attack, Turkish Director of Religious Affairs Mehmet Gormez called Serkek from Denmark, where he was traveling, to express his disappointment about the attack on him, according to local press.
“I don’t want to be ungrateful, but I also told him that these men are trained in the mosques,” Serkek said. “At least 10 times they repeated their demand that I say the kelime-i sahadet [Islamic testimony of faith]. They pressured me. They told me I will die. They had violence in them. They didn’t even know me. They used insulting language. Their goal was to provoke me.”
Serkek said he is convinced the four Muslims who attacked him did not pass by his church site by accident or impulsively. He said the attack was planned, and that if police catch them he would like to know who put them up to it.
Link
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Malatya Protestant massacre: 5 years later and 7 years before
I have before me a nine-page-long document. It is addressed to the İzmir prosecutor. The first sentence of the petition says, “Plaintiffs Necati Aydın and Ercan Şengül are Turkish citizens and Protestant Christians.”
The petition goes on with quite strong wording, accusing the gendarmerie and its illegal unit, the Gendarmerie Intelligence Group Command (JİTEM), of creating false evidence against plaintiffs and illegally restricting their freedoms.
This document, dated June 23, 2000, was about quite a controversial series of events.
Aydın and Şengül went to the town of Kemalpaşa, close to İzmir, to distribute Bibles. They were stopped and taken into custody by the gendarmerie. They were interrogated by gendarmerie officers who introduced themselves as members of JİTEM, the illegal gendarmerie unit that was quite involved with all the atrocities perpetrated against Kurds in southeastern Turkey in the ‘90s.
After staying at the gendarmerie station, they were taken before the court and sent to prison. Distributing Bibles and spreading religious propaganda in Turkey are not crimes. However, as these two Christians learned in court, there were “complaints” against them, allegedly brought forward by some villagers, accusing them of insulting Islam.
They stayed in prison a full month before being brought before the court once again for their first hearing. In this hearing, three villagers who had allegedly complained about Aydın and Şengül appeared before the court and confessed that their first statements were false and they were given under duress. The gendarme had invited the villagers to the station and forced them to incriminate the two Protestants. After hearing these statements from the villagers, the court released them.
After hearing their story, I wrote this nine-page complaint about the gendarmerie and delivered it to the İzmir prosecutor. My legal struggle produced no results. Back then it was not possible for anyone to get statements from these gendarmerie officers. All the doors were closing in our faces.
This is also the story of how I met with Necati Aydın, who was later killed in Malatya in 2007 with two other Protestants, Uğur Yüksel and Tilman Geske. If my petition had been accepted in 2000, would it have been possible to prevent this barbaric murder from taking place seven years later in Malatya? If we had managed to bring these gendarmerie officers before the court, somehow managed to reveal the networks within the state that monitored and recorded the Protestants’ every step and understood all these connections, we could have most probably prevented this barbaric murder from taking place in Malatya, seven years after Necati was taken into custody.
Five years after the murder, all signs indicate that JİTEM and Ergenekon are responsible for the Malatya massacre. A former gendarmerie commander and some gendarmerie officers are in prison waiting to be tried. We are all waiting quite anxiously for the second indictment in this case, hoping to see the wider network behind the murders. It is very unfortunate that the Hrant Dink case came to a premature ending. I really hope that we can break this vicious cycle of injustice in the Malatya massacre case. I believe that if the Malatya massacre case goes well and if we manage to reveal the whole picture and the networks operating from behind the scenes, we can shed some light on other murders. We can have a new understanding of the context in which these murders were planned and the ways they were accomplished. If we had managed to reveal the mentality that placed Necati in prison in 2000, we could have stopped the Malatya massacre in 2007. If we can reveal the real network behind the Malatya massacre, we may prevent future murders. This will be our only consolation on the fifth anniversary of this tragic murder.
Link
The petition goes on with quite strong wording, accusing the gendarmerie and its illegal unit, the Gendarmerie Intelligence Group Command (JİTEM), of creating false evidence against plaintiffs and illegally restricting their freedoms.
This document, dated June 23, 2000, was about quite a controversial series of events.
Aydın and Şengül went to the town of Kemalpaşa, close to İzmir, to distribute Bibles. They were stopped and taken into custody by the gendarmerie. They were interrogated by gendarmerie officers who introduced themselves as members of JİTEM, the illegal gendarmerie unit that was quite involved with all the atrocities perpetrated against Kurds in southeastern Turkey in the ‘90s.
After staying at the gendarmerie station, they were taken before the court and sent to prison. Distributing Bibles and spreading religious propaganda in Turkey are not crimes. However, as these two Christians learned in court, there were “complaints” against them, allegedly brought forward by some villagers, accusing them of insulting Islam.
They stayed in prison a full month before being brought before the court once again for their first hearing. In this hearing, three villagers who had allegedly complained about Aydın and Şengül appeared before the court and confessed that their first statements were false and they were given under duress. The gendarme had invited the villagers to the station and forced them to incriminate the two Protestants. After hearing these statements from the villagers, the court released them.
After hearing their story, I wrote this nine-page complaint about the gendarmerie and delivered it to the İzmir prosecutor. My legal struggle produced no results. Back then it was not possible for anyone to get statements from these gendarmerie officers. All the doors were closing in our faces.
This is also the story of how I met with Necati Aydın, who was later killed in Malatya in 2007 with two other Protestants, Uğur Yüksel and Tilman Geske. If my petition had been accepted in 2000, would it have been possible to prevent this barbaric murder from taking place seven years later in Malatya? If we had managed to bring these gendarmerie officers before the court, somehow managed to reveal the networks within the state that monitored and recorded the Protestants’ every step and understood all these connections, we could have most probably prevented this barbaric murder from taking place in Malatya, seven years after Necati was taken into custody.
Five years after the murder, all signs indicate that JİTEM and Ergenekon are responsible for the Malatya massacre. A former gendarmerie commander and some gendarmerie officers are in prison waiting to be tried. We are all waiting quite anxiously for the second indictment in this case, hoping to see the wider network behind the murders. It is very unfortunate that the Hrant Dink case came to a premature ending. I really hope that we can break this vicious cycle of injustice in the Malatya massacre case. I believe that if the Malatya massacre case goes well and if we manage to reveal the whole picture and the networks operating from behind the scenes, we can shed some light on other murders. We can have a new understanding of the context in which these murders were planned and the ways they were accomplished. If we had managed to reveal the mentality that placed Necati in prison in 2000, we could have stopped the Malatya massacre in 2007. If we can reveal the real network behind the Malatya massacre, we may prevent future murders. This will be our only consolation on the fifth anniversary of this tragic murder.
Link
Hopes for religious equality under new constitution
Christians in Turkey are hoping that the country’s new constitution will guarantee the same rights for them as for Muslims.
A commission was recently set up by the Turkish parliament and tasked with writing up the country’s sixth constitution. A first draft is expected by June.
Christians were invited this week by the commission to present their views on the new constitution, alongside representatives of other minority groups.
“We hope that the new constitution will highlight freedom,” Patriarch Yusuf Sag, leader of the Syrian Catholic Church in Turkey, told Fides news agency.
“We want a constitution that accepts and embraces all just like a mother does with her children.
“We have no expectations other than those of the Muslim Turks … we expect to have the same rights as Muslim Turk citizens.”
Sunday, April 15, 2012
For all that's changed, at Istanbul church, all is the same
At midnight a single flame is brought forth in the darkened and ancient church of St. George and quickly it is shared, candle by candle, until all is illuminated.
The faithful sing "Christos Anesti" as they've sung it for centuries, never changing, singing of Jesus Christ and resurrection, his triumph over death, and of salvation offered to those who believe in him.
Everything is new. It is the beginning of the new day. Western Christianity celebrated the holiday last week, but it is Easter Sunday for the Orthodox, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew leads them in song.
Please don't misunderstand. I'm not telling you what to believe or what not believe. The world is of many different faiths, and there are those who chose to put their faith in science, progress and themselves alone.
But what I am telling you is that this is the way it is here now, and the way it was at the beginning in the ancient city of Istanbul, once known as Constantinople. And I tell you that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew still holds on, bravely, the 270th in an unbroken succession that dates directly back to the apostles.
Only some 2,000 Greeks remain here, and I can only imagine the resurrection hymn being sung by multitudes in Agia Sophia a few miles away, the great domed church of the Orthodox, now a museum, still standing after 1,500 years and large enough so that the great cathedral of Notre Dame could fit comfortably inside of it.
Link
The faithful sing "Christos Anesti" as they've sung it for centuries, never changing, singing of Jesus Christ and resurrection, his triumph over death, and of salvation offered to those who believe in him.
Everything is new. It is the beginning of the new day. Western Christianity celebrated the holiday last week, but it is Easter Sunday for the Orthodox, and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew leads them in song.
Please don't misunderstand. I'm not telling you what to believe or what not believe. The world is of many different faiths, and there are those who chose to put their faith in science, progress and themselves alone.
But what I am telling you is that this is the way it is here now, and the way it was at the beginning in the ancient city of Istanbul, once known as Constantinople. And I tell you that Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew still holds on, bravely, the 270th in an unbroken succession that dates directly back to the apostles.
Only some 2,000 Greeks remain here, and I can only imagine the resurrection hymn being sung by multitudes in Agia Sophia a few miles away, the great domed church of the Orthodox, now a museum, still standing after 1,500 years and large enough so that the great cathedral of Notre Dame could fit comfortably inside of it.
Link
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Christian clerics alarmed at growing threats, persecution in Turkey
Christian clerics in Turkey have expressed their anxiety regarding the growing threats they face in wake of an attack against Pastor Semih Serkek of the Protestant “Lütuf” (“Grace”) Church in Istanbul’s Bahçelievler district on April 7. “Attacks against Christian clerics drop off for a while, then they begin to re-energize. [Such attacks] have begun to accelerate again in recent days. We hesitate when opening our doors and welcoming the faithful inside,” Pastor Krikor Ağabaloğlu of the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Church in Istanbul told the Hürriyet Daily News.
Attack on Easter
Three unidentified individuals attacked and beat Serkek on the night of April 7, immediately after an Easter service. “They were three people around the age of 18. They wore [prayer caps] on their heads. They forced the door open and said they were going to kill me unless I recited the ‘Kelime-i Şahadet’ [Islamic confession of faith]. I received a severe blow to my chest,” Serkek told the Daily News. The attacks were not coincidental, according to Serkek, who had also served as a mentor to the three victims slain in the Malatya Zirve Publishing House incident in eastern Turkey.
Pastor Orhan Picaklar of the Agape Protestant Church in the Black Sea province of Samsun also said he has been living with a personal escort 24 hours a day for the past four years, since a plot to assassinate him first came to light. “Police [officers] keep watch at the door during mass; the believers are afraid to enter the church due to the threat to their lives,” he said. The make-shift church, located inside an apartment building, also came under attack about a month ago, Picaklar said, adding that the congregation was chagrined at being stuck in an apartment. “[The authorities] gave the green light to the construction of a new church in 2004, within the framework of theEuropean Union harmonization laws, although with the pre-condition that it must be no smaller than 2,500 square meters. We have no budget. We appealed to establish a church building 1,000 square meters in size, but did not receive approval for it.”
Ağabaloğlu said that in the case of his church, the state intentionally refused to grant permission
for the construction of a church building. “They are trying to stymie the spread of Christianity in this way.”
Church Pastor Attacked in Istanbul
Four people rushed to the Protestant Grace Church in Bahçelievler, Istanbul and physically abused pastor Semir Serkek (58), after forcing him to cite the Islamic testimony of faith.
Serkek had depicted the attack which took place on the night of the Orthodox Easter, April 7th, to Radikal daily as follows:
"Someone knocked forcefully on the door of the church. They were aggravated. When we opened the door, they forced their way in, mocking us. I was troubled. I asked them to come back at the next day but they kept insulting. 'This is a Muslim neighborhood, there's no place for a church' they said. They threatened to kill me if I refuse to accept Islam. One of them cited the Islamic testimony of faith and asked me to recite it. He kicked me on my chest and then they ran. I fell of the stairs."
Saturday, April 07, 2012
Hopes to Revive the Christian Area of Turkey
IDIL, TURKEY — Clambering over the rubble of what was once his hometown, Robert Tutus pointed to a spot just up the road from where his family’s house had stood.
“This is where my father was assassinated,” he said. “Two men walked up to him as he was returning home one evening, and killed him with a bullet to his head.”
His father, Sukru Tutus, was the last Christian mayor of Azeh, known as Idil in Turkish, a town in southeastern Anatolia that traces its Christianity back to the time of the Apostles.
Within a month of his killing, which happened on June 17, 1994, Mr. Tutus recalled last month, the remaining Christian population of the town, several hundred people at the time, had gathered their belongings and fled to asylum in Western Europe.
The departure marked the end of the Christian era of Azeh, which had been a bishop’s seat as early as the second century and home to a Christian population of several thousand until the late 1970s.
Only ruins scattered about the hillside remain of their town today, while above it shabby concrete buildings rise to form the new town of Idil, inhabited by local Kurds and Arabs as well as a few Turkish administrators on temporary postings to the east.
And then there is Mr. Tutus, 42, camped out in an apartment in one of those buildings while he tries to reclaim his father’s properties and rebuild his parental home among the ruins on the hillside.
“This is our home, the home of the Syriac people,” Mr. Tutus said. “We will not give it up.”
The plateau of Tur Abdin, upon which Idil lies nestled between the Syrian plain and the mountain ranges of southeastern Turkey, is the historical heartland of the Syriac Orthodox Church, whose patriarchate resided here until tensions with the Turkish republic pushed it to move to Syria in 1933.
The region is still dotted with Syriac churches like Mor Gabriel, which was founded in the year 397 and is one of the oldest active monasteries in the world today. But apart from the monks, very few Syriacs remain.
A century ago, they numbered 200,000 here, according to the European Syriac Union, a diaspora organization. Some 50,000 survived the massacres of Anatolian Christians during World War I, in which the Syriac people shared the fate of the Armenians. Today, no more than 4,500 Syriac Christians, who speak a local dialect of the Aramaic language as well as Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish, remain in Tur Abdin.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)