“The reference to religious freedom was needed — it’s a clear message that the world Turkey is aligned with is aware there are problems here which can’t be ignored,” said Zekai Tanyar, the executive board chairman of Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches.
“The real issue isn’t with laws or the constitution, which is quite clear about religious freedom, but with attitudes and mentalities,” Tanyar told Ecumenical News International in a telephone interview. “The State is making no effort to dissuade people from thinking Christians are their enemies.”
The Izmir-based pastor was reacting to Obama’s April 6 speech to the Turkish parliament, in which the U.S. president called for “robust minority rights” and “freedom of religion and expression.” In his April 9 interview, Tanyar said he was heartened the U.S. administration had noted the plight of local Christians, at a time when public opinion in Turkey itself is largely unaware of their problems.
In recent years, Muslim-majority, but politically-secular Turkey has faced criticism for its treatment of religious minorities.
Obama’s appeal was also praised by the head of the Roman Catholic Church in Turkey, who said local parishes faced “great difficulties” in the some parts of the country. “Although our situation can only be expected to change slowly, it’s very important a senior figure like this is drawing attention to minority hardships,” said Bishop Luigi Padovese, the Italian-born president of Turkey’s bishops’ conference, whose 32 000-member church has vicariates in Istanbul and Anatolia and an archdiocese at Izmir.
“Officially, the Catholic church doesn’t exist here since we aren’t recognized as a minority. We’ve insisted legal recognition wouldn’t in any way endanger the secular character of the Turkish republic,” Padovese said. “But there are many things still to be done before Turkey can be said to ensure religious freedom and pluralism.”
Addressing parliamentarians in Ankara, President Obama had said religious freedom led “to a strong and vibrant civil society that only strengthens the state,” while minority rights “let societies benefit from the full measure of contributions from all citizens.”
He noted that that a long-sought agreement to reopen the Orthodox church’s Halki seminary in Istanbul, which was closed by the government in 1971, would “send such an important signal inside Turkey and beyond.”
The president, who also described Turkey as an “important part of Europe,” held talks in his Istanbul hotel on April 7 with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomeos I, who is often seen as the spiritual leader of the world’s 250 million members of the Orthodox Church. Also present were archbishops from the country’s Armenian Apostolic and Syrian Orthodox churches, as well as local Muslim and Jewish leaders.
