Syriacs argue the court’s decision highlights their position as second-class citizens.
Perched on rocky hillside on the outskirts of Mardin in southeastern
Turkey, the Mor Gabriel Monastery has been a cultural and religious
centre of the ancient Syriac people for more than 1600 years. But in a
controversial decision that will likely bring the case to the
Constitutional Court and European Court of Human Rights, Turkey's
Supreme Court of Appeals has ruled the land belonging to the monastery
is occupying state lands and should be given to the Treasury.
"Declaring that the Treasury is the rightful owner of these lands, this
final verdict issued by the Supreme Court of Appeals has no reasonable
grounds given historical and legal facts," Tuma Celik, the
representative of Turkey within the European Syriac Union, told SES
Türkiye.
The conflict over the monastery began in 2008 when three village heads
near the monastery filed a complaint claiming the land belonged to their
villages and the monastery was engaged in "anti-Turkish activities" and
proselytizing. The complaint came as Turkish authorities were redrawing
the boundaries around the monastery and surrounding villages to update
the national land registry in line with the EU harmonisation process.
Adding to the case, several new laws have been adopted that require the
transfer of uncultivated land to the Treasury.
The Treasury responded by filing a complaint against the monastery, but a
lower court dismissed the case after finding the monastery had
registered the property with the Foundations Directorate General in 1936
and has been paying taxes since 1937.
In response the Treasury appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of
Appeals, which found the monastery had not presented documents to the
Foundations Directorate General in 1936 and provided no proof of paying
taxes since 1937. The monastery claims all documents were provided in
2009 and were ignored in the court's final decision.
The EU has sharply criticised Turkey over the case against Mor Gabriel and the status of the Syriac people.
For Turkey's 25,000 strong Syriac community and human rights defenders,
the Treasury's actions and the court's decision highlight a selective
use of evidence and hypocrisy against non-Muslim communities.
Kuryakos Ergun, the head of Mor Gabriel Monastery, said the court's
decision was "unfortunate" as the monastery is considered the second
most important holy place for the Syriac people after Jerusalem.
"We are the citizens of this country. We didn't come to these
territories by immigrating from somewhere. We born here and we are
living here for millennia. But such verdicts imply that we are
second-class citizens," he told SES Türkiye.
Unlike Jews, Armenians and Greeks, the Syriacs are not considered an
official minority under the Lausanne treaty, prompting some to call them
the "forgotten minority."
Since World War I, there has been a steady population decline in the
Syriac population in Turkey as a result of state policies,
discrimination, economic factors and the conflict with the PKK in the
1980s and 1990s. Over the past several years some families in the
diaspora have started to return.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a prominent Turkish lawyer and human rights
activist, told SES Türkiye some citizens have a hidden agenda to
continuously bring an organised action against non-Muslims.
According to Cengiz, the decision is the reflection of a state reflex
that views non-Muslim citizens as "indigenous foreigners," a term once
used by the Supreme Court of Appeals.
"We should ask ourselves how it would be possible to improvement our
policies regarding minority rights when proceeding in such embarrassing
actions against a handful of Syriac citizens and their ancient church,"
he said.
Some 300 individuals, composed of writers, academics and artists, have
joined in a petition campaign entitled "Turkey is the Syriacs' Homeland
and the Mor Gabriel Monastery is not an Occupier," to protest the
decision to nationalise its lands.
"According to us, the decision by the Supreme Court of Appeals reveals
the hypocrisy of the state toward Syriacs. While on one hand there are
calls to the Syriac people who live outside Turkey to return, on the
other hand, Syriacs are declared occupiers," the petition states.
One of the co-sponsors of the petition, Cengiz Aktar from Bahcesehir
University in Istanbul, said that the Syriacs are the most destitute
non-Muslim communities of Turkey because they lack the special rights
granted to official minorities.
"Very much ignored, the Syriacs need to reappear on Turkey's radar, on
its conscience record and more importantly on Turkey's legal framework
which would grant the same rights to all, be they Muslim or non-Muslim,"
Aktar told SES Türkiye.
The Syriac community now plans to appeal the case to the Constitutional
Court. Barring a positive outcome, Syriac representatives will take
their case to the European Court of Human Rights.
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