BilgeKhan, the lobotomized Turk, also formerly known on the Usenet as
notoriously lying and falsifying "Baba Bey the Turk", a criminal mass
canceller of thousands of posts and rabid Jew, Greek, Kurd and Armenian
hater, writes:
<snip usual Turkish hypocrisy>
http://tinyurl.com/6jlq35
Religious Atmosphere: 99.8% of this country's people are Muslim. There are
small populations of Greek, Armenian, and Syriac Christians and Jews in
various parts of the country.
Extremist groups: The radical Islamic group Hizbollah continues to operate
in this country.
Government:
The constitution establishes a secular government and the freedom of
belief
and wor****p.
Religious services may only take place in designated houses of wor****p.
Proselytizing is not illegal but is viewed with suspicion, especially when
political overtones are suspected. Police often arrest individuals who are
proselytizing for disturbing the peace or other charges both civil and
political. The courts almost always drop these charges. Foreigners are
often
de****ted but are sometimes allowed to reenter the country.
Religious instruction in state schools is mandatory for every child except
for those members of religious minorities listed in the Lausanne Treaty
signed in 1928.
Due to current laws concerning historic preservation, some minority
congregations are in danger of losing their building to the government if
they are unable to provide adequate staff or adherents.
The government does not fulfill any obligations to non-European refugees
as
outlined in the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees. It is
also re****ted that many Iraqi and Iranian asylum seekers who claimed to be
under religious persecution due to their conversion to Christianity are
turned away.
Recent Actions:
February 3, 2003 - Pastor Ahmet Guvener was acquitted of making illegal
architectural changes to his church in Diyarbakir (see May 2002 below).
(Compass Direct)
December 2002 - Authorities dropped charges against the Ephesus Protestant
Church in Selcuk. Last year the church had been charged with hold meetings
without legal permission. (Compass Direct)
July 31, 2002 - Government officials in Diyarbakir accepted the revised
architectural plan for Turkish pastor Guvener's church. Construction is
moving forward again. Guvener's church has met in his apartment the past 5
years and now has a total of 40 members. The press has tried to smear
Guvener's name by giving false re****ts, but he has remained unaffected.
Guvener still faces criminal charges for making "illegal changes" in the
architect's drawings. His next hearing is October 8. He believes this will
be his final hearing because his innocence was so clear cut in his
previous
hearing on May 28. (Compass Direct)
July 9, 2002 - A 40 year old Protestant Church in the southwestern ****t
city
of Iskendrun, was ordered to close its doors by the Turkish security
police.
The police declared the church had no legal basis and that its activities
were harmful to society. The church will file a case soon. (Compass
Direct)
June 26, 2002 - The case against Mr. Kemal Timur has been dropped (see
January 30, 2001 below for details). The supposed witnesses never showed
up
to the court hearings and the judge decided to drop all charges.
* May 2002 - Ahmet Guvener, a Protestant pastor in Diyarbakir, will go
on trial later this month for making "illegal changes" to the
architectural
plan of his church building. Construction on the church was halted in
November of last year after the Council for the Protection of Cultural and
Natural Riches decided that Guvener's church building would block the view
of the Syrian Orthodox church across the street. Though Guvener and his
architect had submitted the blueprints of the church and received
permission
to build, the authorities are now trying to make structural changes to the
church and accusing Gevener of misrepresenting the building as a residence
in the original plan. The first hearing of the case is scheduled for May
28.
(Compass)
* April 14, 2002 - Protestors attempted to interrupt the services of
the
Agape Protestant Church in Istanbul by shouting slogans like "We don't
want
a church in our neighborhood!" and "No to missionaries!" (Compass)
* April 6, 2002 - A Protestant church in Ankara received a bomb threat
from someone identifying himself as a Palestinian. The church cancelled
its
services, but the threat was never carried out. (Compass)
* February 5, 2002 - The court case against Christian Kemal Timur (see
January 30, 2001 below) was postponed for the sixth time after the police
officers summoned to testify against Timur failed to show up again.
(Compass)
* October 9, 2001 ¡V The ECHR (European Court of Human Rights) has
assigned the Turkish government until October 11 to offer a formal
statement
of its judicial *****sment of the criminal conviction of Syrian Catholic
Christian Soner Onder. (See April 2001.) (Compass)
* October 5, 2001 ¡V The scheduled hearing of Kemal Timur was once
again
postponed, as the police officers accusing Timur of slandering the Prophet
failed to appear in the Diyarbakir Criminal Court of First Instance. The
new hearing is scheduled for February 5, 2002. (Compass)
* August 17, 2001 - The Turkish Interior Ministry ordered that places
of
wor****p used by up to 40 Christian groups should be investigated to see if
they are legal. The churches in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakir, Bursa and
Mersin are accused of violating municipal building laws. Meanwhile, the
Turkish Religious Affairs Directorate has admitted that 81% of mosques
currently under construction had not received a license. (Compass)
* July 17, 2001 ¡V The scheduled hearing of Kemal Timur was once again
postponed. The new hearing is set for October 4, 2001.
* May 31, 2001 ¡V The scheduled hearing of Kemal Timur (see January
30,
2001 below) was postponed until July 17, 2001.
* May 16, 2001 ¡V The office of a Christian ministry offering free New
Testaments and a prayer hotline, was investigated by police. There had
been
complaints about the Istanbul-based ministry ever since an article in the
local newspaper warned the public about increasing Christian missionary
activity in the country.
* April 11, 2001 ¡V Security Police raided the home of Christian
Yashar
Tugral and took him into custody for allegedly using financial enticements
to produce converts. A state prosecutor ordered that he be held for 5 days
in Gazientrop prison while charges against him were investigated. Mr.
Tugral¡¦s church had been closed down just two weeks before his arrest
because of zoning restrictions.
* April 2001 ¡V Recent crackdowns to restore control in the country¡¦s
prisons has led to deteriorating conditions. Christian prisoner Soner
Onder
is being held in an overcrowded jail cell and has been refused visits by
family members. Soner Onder has been imprisoned since 1991 on false
charges
of participation in a Kurdish separatist group. His case is scheduled for
a
preliminary review before the European Court of Human Rights.
* April 5, 2001 ¡V Father Yusuf Akbulut was acquitted on charges of
"provoking religious enmity" for statements he made to the press (see
December 2000 below).
* March 27, 2001 ¡V Two of the three people accusing Mr. Kemal Timur
of
making blasphemous statements while handing out Christian literature
appeared for his trial (see January 30, 2001 below). Only one testified
against him while the other said he did not insult Islam or Muhammad.
Another hearing was scheduled for May 31.
* January 30, 2001 ¡V Christian Kemal Timur was scheduled to stand
trial
for uttering remarks insulting Islam and the Prophet Muhammad on May 1,
2000
while distributing New Testaments in Diyarbakir. Mr. Timur denies the
charges saying he never speaks about his faith openly on the street but
only
hands out the New Testaments to those who wish to take them. If they show
an
interest, he arranges to meet with them later. Two of Mr. Timur¡¦s three
accusers are unknown to him. In fact he did not even find out a complaint
had been filed against him until December 15 when he received an official
indictment in the mail. His trial was re-scheduled for March 27, 2001
because the accusing parties failed to show up in court.
* December 7, 2000 ¡V In a landmark decision by the Turkish Supreme
Court
an evangelical Protestant church was granted legal status as a religious
foundation. The court¡¦s ruling was based on upholding the equality
clauses
of the Turkish constitution, the UN Charter of Human Rights and religious
freedom agreements signed with the European Union. Though the decision
overrides several statutes of Turkish civil law, as a Supreme Court
decision
it must be upheld and cannot be abrogated. Two other churches have now
applied for the same status and evangelicals are hopeful that they may be
given more freedom.
* December 2000 ¡V A Syrian Orthodox priest could go to prison for 3
years under Article 312 of the Turkish penal code. Father Yusuf Akbulut is
accused of "provoking hatred and religious enmity" because of statements
he
made to the press. Fr. Akubulut had not given the press permission to
publish an interview in which he stated that Syrians, as well as
Armenians,
were targets of Turkish genocide 85 years ago. The Turkish government
denies
international allegations that it massacred more than a million Armenians
during World War I. Thus, Fr. Akbulut¡¦s statements are considered
divisive.
The next hearing is scheduled for February 22, 2001.
* March 31, 2000 ¡V Ercan Sengul and Necati Aydin (see below) were
released from prison after a judge found no evidence of their "crime." In
fact, it was discovered that prosecution witnesses signed complaints
prepared by the gendarmarie without reading them thoroughly. These
complaints stated that the Christian men had denigrated the Koran and its
prophet and forced people to take Christian materials against their will.
All three witnesses retracted the complaints when questioned.
* March 1, 2000 ¡VErcan Sengul and Necati Aydin were arrested while
selling and distributing Christian literature near Izmir. They were
accused
of insulting Islam and forcing people to take Bibles. The arrests occurred
a
day after a television program on "Christian missionary sects" appeared on
public television.
* October 3, 1999 -- Another group of believers was arrested on the
charge of conducting illegal meetings, this time in Istanbul. Eleven
foreigners and their children were arrested along with 35 church members.
Security police claimed the congregation needed to have written permission
issued by the Turkish government even though the church had gone through
all
of the required procedures to legalize their church in 1993.
* September 12, 1999 ¡V Forty people were arrested by Turkish
officials
during a wor****p service in Izmir. Those arrested at the Izmir Fellow****p
of
Jesus included 35 Turks and 5 foreigners. The detainees were held for 24
hours on the charge of meeting illegally. They were released after the
Public Prosecutor threw out allegations against them, declaring that it
was
a legal church meeting. Unfortunately, journalists from a tabloid
newspaper
who were present during the arrests printed an article about the incident,
calling the church a "pirate church."
* August 1999 ¡X Australian Ian McLure and an unnamed native Turk were
arrested in a suburb of Istanbul for selling books (Christian literature)
without permission. McLure, an English teacher in Istanbul for 12 years
had
to pay a $35 fine. The Turk¡¦s charges were later dropped. Soon
thereafter,
new charges were made against McLure stating that he was illegally
employed
selling the books. His pass****t was confiscated pending trial.
Interestingly, the books had been sold at that location for over three
years
without any sort of problem even with full knowledge of the authorities.
* July, 1999 ¡X A group of 16 American students from Arkansas were
arrested for propagandizing as they were offering Turkish New Testaments
to
people passing by in the ****t city of Izmir (formerly ancient Smyrna). The
Turkish press claimed that they were offering $100 bills for anybody who
would convert. In addition, they were accused of sup****ting Kurdish
separatism because of a pamphlet concerning the identity of the Kurdish
people that was found in the luggage of one of them. They were forced to
pay
for their own de****tation back to the United States on June 30th.
bullet July 16, 1999 ¡X A group of European tourists who were offering New
Testaments to local people in Istanbul was arrested and questioned. Their
New Testaments and other materials were confiscated. During the same week
two Turkish national Christians who had converted and a South Korean were
arrested in Izmit for selling Christian materials at a book stand. They
were
released the following day.
bullet February 1999 ¡X A grade school of 45 Armenian children was evicted
without notice from its location in Istanbul. The Bomanti Armenian
Elementary School had been opened in 1808 and received the current
property
in 1963. However, a 1936 ruling stipulated that a religious minority
foundation may not receive new property. Therefore, the school was ordered
to leave the premises. All school property including furniture,
blackboards,
and supplies was dumped outside in the schoolyard. The case is still being
contested in court. Muslim foundations are said to not have this sort of
problem, but many other Christian properties in Istanbul are similarly at
risk. 40 other pieces of property have already been lost in this way in
Istanbul over the years.
Prisoners: One Christian man, Soner Onder, has been imprisoned since 1991
for supposed ties to a Kurdish separatist group.Other than that there is
no
evidence that prisoners are being held for their religious beliefs at this
time. However, there have been re****ted cases of Christians being arrested
falsely on charges of terrorism and other political crimes. Some observers
have felt that this was intended to intimidate the small struggling
Christian minority.
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