SYRIACS TO VISIT TURKISH PARLIAMENT NEXT WEEK


ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News / Vercihan Ziflioğlu

A delegation of Syriac Christians from Turkey and abroad will meet with Parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Commission on Feb. 27 in Ankara after months of striving to get an appointment. “We do not believe the Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew possesses any authority to speak on behalf of all Christian minorities,” Tuma Çelik, the head of the European Syriac Union, told the Hürriyet Daily News on behalf of the delegation. “At least, he does not represent us, the Syriacs. As such, he reserves no right to speak in our name. It is quite natural, however, for him to talk about ongoing problems in Turkey in a more general sense while he is laying down his own demands.” The delegation that is set to meet with the commission as part of ongoing efforts to frame a new constitution will include Evgil Türker, the head of the Federation of Turkish Syriac Associations, Sabri Akbaba, the representative of Syriac institutions in Germany, and Tuma Özdemir, the representative of the Istanbul Mesopotamia Culture and Solidarity Association, as well as Çelik.