ICC Note: The message of a declaration signed by church leaders in Turkey is not that they are under no pressure, but rather that they will be in trouble if they don’t sign, according to a number of sources. It is also reported that they were asked to make this statement to counter the negative reverberations of Pastor Andrew Brunson’s detention. The church is experiencing an increase of pressure in Turkey that manifests itself in a number of ways, all of which lead to a restricting of the practice of Christian faith.      

08/15/2018 Turkey (al-Monitor) –  As tensions simmered between Ankara and Washington over detained American pastor Andrew Brunson, the leaders of Turkey’s non-Muslim minorities issued a joint statement July 31 to deny that they faced any oppression in the country. The timing of the move was rather remarkable, and for Garo Paylan, an ethnic Armenian lawmaker for the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), the issuance of such a declaration was “in itself a proof that we are not free.”

The 18 Christian and Jewish community leaders who signed the declaration asserted that they practiced their faiths freely, that “statements alleging and/or alluding to oppression are completely untrue” and that “many grievances experienced in the past have been resolved.”

Leading the signatory list was Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I of Constantinople, whose community has been waiting for 47 years now to have its theological school reopened, followed by Archbishop Aram Atesyan, the acting spiritual head of the Armenian community, which is unable to elect its own patriarch because of government interference. Fourth on the list was Yusuf Cetin, the acting patriarch of the Syriac community, which has seen many of its church properties seized by the state, while most other signatories represented foundations crippled by red tape.

What led minority leaders to issue such a statement at a time when their misgivings are known to be on the rise?

Tuma Celik, a Syriac community leader who became an HDP deputy in the June elections, told Al-Monitor that church and foundation leaders were asked to make the statement to counter the negative reverberations of Brunson’s detention. The request came from the Turkish state via a channel within the non-Muslim minorities. As community representatives discussed the request a day after it was communicated, presidential spokesman Ibrahim Kalin invited them to a meeting scheduled for two days later. The leaders could not bring themselves to go to the meeting without fulfilling the request and issued the statement. The meeting with Kalin took place in Istanbul the following day.

Celik, who is privy to the discussions among community leaders, said the declaration was issued out of apprehension that failing to do so would cause them trouble with the government. He noted that there was no direct order from Ankara and that “one of our own” voiced the request. “The state has always had arms within [the minorities],” he said. “Some people are more statist than the state itself.”

According to Celik, Kalin’s invitation cornered the leaders. “They feared they would be held to account if they went to the meeting without having issued the statement,” he said. “And releasing it after the meeting, they thought, would create the impression they were acting under pressure.”

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