Syriacs call it a ploy to pit Christian communities against each other.
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| Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, once a Catholic Cathedral (Wikimedia.org) |
By Barbara G.
Baker
ISTANBUL,
Dec. 17 (World Watch Monitor) —Three years after a Syrian
Orthodox foundation applied to build a church in Istanbul, the
Greater Istanbul Municipality has granted them a large plot of land
and a building permit.
Banner
headlines in the Turkish media praised the early-December decision as
“a first in the history of the Republic,” declaring that never
before had Turkey allowed a non-Muslim minority to build an official
new house of worship.
Still, Syriac
Christians were far from pleased. For one thing, the land they were
“granted” by the municipality is, in fact, a Latin Catholic
cemetery.
“We don’t
want a Syriac church on top of a cemetery!” the website
suryaniler.com stated. “This is a big scandal.”
In fact, the
graveyard had been donated back in 1868 to the Italian Catholic
Church in what is now Istanbul’s Yesilkoy district. It was then
officially registered as Catholic property in 1936, although later
confiscated in 1951 by the city.
The Council of
Europe’s 2011 progress report noted that Turkey was not fully
implementing Law No. 3998, which states that cemeteries belonging to
minority communities can no longer be taken over by local
municipalities.
According to
lawyer Nail Karakas, the Latin Catholic foundation had applied to the
city last summer, in accordance with the government’s August 2011
pledge to restore expropriated minority properties, to regain
possession of their property and resume Christian burials in the
graveyard.
So Syriac
leaders are insisting that the cemetery land newly designated for
their church be returned instead to its rightful owners.
“It is clear
that (the authorities) want to cause conflict between the minority
communities,” commented Syriac layman Sabo Boyaci. Boyaci also
faulted the government for trying to exploit the Syriac community
politically.
“I don’t
believe the government’s sincerity. They delivered this land to us
in order to silence us on the matter of Mor Gabriel Monastery. The
government simply aims to make a good impression on the European and
Turkish public,” he told Hurriyet Daily News.
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Copyright 2012
World Watch Monitor
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CHRISTMAS! And remember you can affect the Wide World by your Prayer,
for Nothing is impossible to God. Nothing, if only you'll pray....
Bill Hunt
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