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Turkey’s accession to the EU – Blind spot for the European Union
Non-Muslim minorities
in Turkey as targets of a recent hate campaign
Thus was the title of a Press
Conference held in the Residence Palace – International Press Center in
Brussels (22 September 2004). The event, which attracted more than 20
journalists, was organized by the Working Group Recognition – Against
Genocide, for International Understanding (Berlin),
the Switzerland-Armenia Association (Bern)
and The Assembly of Armenians of Europe.
The first two organizations
mentioned above, initiated a Memorandum that was submitted to the
attention of the European Council, Council of the European Union, members
of the European Commission and European Parliament. The Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac
Association, Föderation der Aramäer (Suryoye) in Deutschland e.V.
and Syriac Universal Alliance were among the cosignatories.
Will the European
Commission, in its report of October 6, 2004, consider Turkey as ‘ready’
for the EU accession? Will the European Council start the negotiations for
Turkey’s accession to the EU at the end of this year?
These vital questions were
answered from seven different perspectives by the following guest speakers
(in alphabetical order).
Mister Baastian Belder,
Independence/Democracy Group,
Member of the European
Parliament, Netherlands; Mister Michalis Charalambidis, writer,
member of the Central Committee of the International League for the
Rights and Liberation of Peoples, expert on the genocide of Greeks in
Pontos, Athens; Baroness Caroline Cox of Queensbury, Deputy Speaker
of the House of Lords, United Kingdom, Chairperson of the Christian
Solidarity Worldwide, London; Ms. Hülya Engin, Committee member
of TÜDAY, organization for the defence of human rights in Turkey
and Germany, Cologne; Dr. Tessa Hofmann, scholar of Armenian
studies and sociology; scientific documentarist at the Free University of
Berlin; writer, human rights activist; chairperson of the Working Group
Recognition – Against Genocide, for International Understanding;
Mister Johny Messo, chairman of the Foundation Study Centre Aramea,
main representative of the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA) to the
United Nations Office in Geneva; Prof. Dr. Yves Ternon, doctor,
historian and writer, researcher and expert in genocide studies, in
particular the genocide of Armenians and its denial, Paris.
Mr. Nicolas Tavitian, an expert in international political
relations, Brussels, acted as the moderator.
Their speeches as well as the
documentation regarding the Memorandum are available in the following web
sites (in English and French; some documents are also available in
German):
http://www.aga-online.org/de/aktionen/index.php
http://www.armenian.ch
Below follows the oral
statement of the Syriac Universal Alliance (SUA). In 1999, the SUA has
been officially recognized by the United Nations (UN) as an
non-governmental organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status with
the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) of the UN.
The Status of the Aramean (Syriac)
People in Southeast Turkey
Esteemed Ladies and Gentlemen,
The
Republic of Turkey boasts a unique mosaic of
religions, languages
and races. Thus it is my honor to share with you the experiences faced by
one of its non-Turkish and non-Muslim peoples regarding recent advances
made in this Republic within the framework of EU criteria. Namely, of the
Arameans – a largely forgotten people with
an extraordinarily rich heritage.
As
early as the 13th century B.C., written sources unequivocally
portray the southeastern terrain of modern Turkey as the native land of
several Aramean principalities. In the first centuries A.D., however, the
Arameans converted en masse to Christianity. The numerous
monasteries and churches, although most of them lying in ruins today,
still testify to this fact.
[For a detailed description on the Arameans, see the
multimedia project (3 illustrated books & 3 videotapes) known as The
Hidden Pearl: The Aramaic Heritage of the Syrian Orthodox Church
(Rome, 2001), which covers 3,000 years of their history and includes the
relationship with their
neighboring
peoples; available in English, German, Swedish, Dutch and Turkish.]
Although in
the past decades the indigenous Aramean or Syriac people have endured many
hardships on different levels, I will briefly touch on three primary
issues following their developments from 1999 on, when Turkey became an
official candidate for EU membership.
1:1915Genocide.
In 1920, the Syriac Orthodox church delivered a memorandum to the Peace
Conference in London stating that ca. 90,000 of its faithful were
innocently murdered. Turkey not only categorically denies this Aramean
national trauma, but it also can penalize the sheer mention of this
Genocide, as the arrestment of a Syriac Orthodox priest witnessed in 2001.
Moreover, in 2001 the Turkish Historical Society Printing House in Ankara
published a book aimed at rebutting the Genocide of the Aramean people and
in 2002 the National Education Ministry even initiated anti-Genocide
teachings to elementary and high school pupils. In an already highly
Islamized state, these are truly frightening trends for the Christian
Arameans.
2:Official
recognition.
The articles 37-45 of the Lausanne Treaty (24 July 1923) determine the
rights of the non-Muslim minorities within Turkey. In practice, however,
this Treaty repeatedly gave birth to arbitrary interpretations by Turkish
officials and only the well-known traditional ‘millets’ (i.e. Armenians,
Greeks and Jews) were defined as “non-Muslim.”
For example,
the teaching of the Aramaic language in ancient monasteries or the
restoration of centuries-old church buildings have been outlawed in the
recent past, all based on this Pact. It is true, the Arameans virtually do
not exist according to such loose interpretations. Hence, all the
elementary human rights (e.g., religious, social and cultural) have been
denied to them simply because they are not explicitly referred to as
‘non-Muslim’ in the Turkish legislation. More, religious freedom cannot be
assured in this secular state as the Department of Religious Affairs has
been controlled by strong Islamic forces for years now; thus it lost its
neutrality.
3:Remigration.
Today, Sweden and
Germany together house more than 100,000 Arameans; whereas in southeast
Turkey there have remained less than 2,500 souls.
After the mass exodus of the Syriacs from their ancestral land in the past
three decades, in 2001 the then Turkish Prime Minister issued a circular
inviting all the Diaspora Arameans under “state guarantee” to return to
their homes again. This message was received with great joy and hope, and
it produced a small movement of repatriates initiating building and
renovation enterprises.
However, the
majority of the Diaspora community is still governed by fear and
insecurity before going back to their lands. Syriac Orthodox church
lootings in Diyarbakir and in Mardin last year, including the
assassination of the mayor of a Syriac village on the 17th of
July 2004, which basically had to do with neighboring Muslims aspiring to
take over the village, confirmed this. The village of Sare serves as
another illustration. In 1994, Turkey installed the paramilitary ‘village
guards’ in Sare to protect the local population and in the next two years
ca. 20 adjacent Syriac villages were evacuated. It took the expatriates
from Sare years to get their village back again. Only after Mr. Günther
Verheugen, who was petitioned to intervene in this regard, recently left
Turkey, the army abruptly removed these guards just 10 days ago; it should
be noted that more than once expired deadlines were ignored by these
village guards.
In conclusion,
to conform to international laws, in particular on human rights as well as
on minority rights, we appeal today to the Turkish government to:
1.- affirm the
1915 Genocide on the Christian populations (including the Arameans) and
discontinue politics of denial;
2.-
acknowledge the indigenous Aramean people officially by including them
unambiguously in the Lausanne Treaty securing their fundamental human
rights and their equal treatment;
3.- issue a
Law of Repatriation for the Arameans, which guarantees their right of
remigration and ensures their safety, beginning with the termination of
the state-sponsored system of the approximately 70,000 village guards who
are still operational in the region today;
4.- recognize
and treasure the multicultural identity of the Republic of Turkey, of
which the native Aramean people still form an integral and essential part.
This recognition must also be adopted by Turkish media outlets and leading
corporate, educational and general institutions.
And so, justice, recognition and equality are the basic
principles we plead for. We believe that this is a minor request that can
be granted to the Arameans by the Republic of Turkey.
Thank you
kindly for your attention.
Johny Messo
Main
representative to the UN Office in Geneva on behalf of the Syriac
Universal Alliance |
