GORDON PAYS VISIT TO HALKI SEMINARY


VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

ISTANBUL-HURRIYET DAILY NEWS

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon yesterday visited Istanbul’s Halki Seminary, of which re-opening has long been debated after a 4-day long official visit he made to Greece. “Reopening of the Halki seminary will positively effect Turkey in terms of freedom of religion and democracy,” Gordon said during his visit to the seminary.

Gordon paid a short visit to Fener Greek Patriarchate first, and then headed to Heybeliada Halki seminary. Gordon stated that the U.S. was closely following the developments about the Halki seminary issue. “Reopening of the Halki seminary will positively effect Turkey in terms of freedom of religion and democracy,” Gordon said. After the meeting, Gordon answered questions of the press. He commented on the seminary building, stating that he wandered in the building and liked it so much. He also underlined that he personally followed the developments about the issue. In the meeting, which was closed to the press, a great confidentiality was kept while choosing photographers and journalists. The seminary, which was the main center of Orthodox Greek theological was closed in 1971.

Syriacs make their mark in historic meet with Gül


ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioğlu
The details regarding a recent meeting in which Turkish President Abdullah Gül hosted the leaders of eight of Turkey’s minority foundations on July 27 in Istanbul have been revealed. Accordingly, the three participant Syriac foundations made their mark at the meeting, especially regarding the ongoing conflict regarding the Mor Gabriel (Deyrulumur) Monastery case and the relocation of the Syriac Church’s patriarchate from Beirut to Turkey.

During the meeting, which was planned to be 45 minutes but took about 1.5 hours, Gül paid great attention to the problems communicated but didn’t make any remarks about any problem, the Hürriyet Daily News has learned.

The Syriac foundations also demanded the return of their historical patriarchate building in Mardin, which has been turned into a museum.

In previous months, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held a series of negotiations with Syriacs on the topic and proposed bringing Beirut’s Catholic and Damascus’ Syriac Kadim patriarchates to Turkey.

Besides the patriarchate issue, Syriac’s Kadim Church foundation put the historical Mor Gabriel Monastery in Mardin on the agenda, which has been the subject of a conflict between Turkey and the Mor Gabriel Foundation.

Other minority leaders also brought education problems in minority schools and expectations regarding citizenship rights to the table.

Foundations Law

Yedikule Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation President Bedros Şirinoğlu also joined the meeting to represent Armenian foundations.

“We have already been speaking about our problems generally with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç. So, instead of repeating our problems to the president, we wanted to express our regards for his support of the Minority Foundations Law,” he said.

Laki Vingas, a council member of the Foundations Directorate General and the organizer of the meeting, told the Daily News the meeting had been held under very good conditions, the leaders of minorities expressed their gratitude for the Foundations Law and return of properties and they spoke about education problems.

In addition to Şirinoğlu and Vingas, Syriac Catholic leader Zeki Paşademir, Armenian Catholic Foundation leader Bernard Sarıbay, Syriac Kadim Foundation representative Sait Susin, Greek Foundation representative Andon Parisyoanos, Jewish Community representative Sami Herman and Bulgarian community representative Vasil Liyaze attended the meeting.

July/30/2012

US official to visit Halki Seminary


ISTANBUL- Hürriyet Daily News
VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

US official Philip Gordon is expected to visit Halki Seminary on July 30.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Philip Gordon will come to Turkey to visit Heybeliada’s Halki Seminary.

Archpriest and Metropolitan of Bursa Elpidophoros Lambriniadis confirmed that Gordon will visit Halki Seminary on July 30, speaking to Hürriyet Daily News. Metropolitan Lambriniadis said the proposal for the visit reached the Patriarchate via the U.S. Embassy. The meeting will begin at 2:30 p.m., and it has not yet been determined whether it will be open to the press.

After paying a 4-day official visit to Greece, Gordon will come directly to Istanbul. On Monday, Gordon is expected to visit Halki Seminary after going to the Fener Greek Patriarchate. Gordon will also attend an iftar dinner in Üsküdar. On his visit to Turkey in 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama underlined the importance of reopening Halki Seminary in a historic speech at Turkey’s Parliament. Despite Obama’s emphasis on the topic, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s more recent remark that “Halki Seminary should be opened, but also a mosque should be opened in Athens,” caused confusion and worry at the Fener Greek Patriarchate.

July/28/2012

President Gül meets with minority groups

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News



President Gül hosts leaders of Turkey’s minority foundations in Istanbul. The visit bears significance since the leaders have been invited together for the first time

An Alevi federation criticizes a fast-breaking dinner that brings together President Gül and another Alevi group for misrepresenting the nation’s Alevi community. AA photo

Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr

The leaders of Turkey’s eight minority foundations have been hosted for the first time at the presidential summer compound in the history of the Turkish Republic. The visit was significant, as it represented the first time the leaders of minority communities together have been hosted at the presidential summer compound in the history of the Turkish Republic.



The strongest cases at the meeting would belong to three Syriac foundations, according to information Hürriyet Daily News gathered from Syriac Catholic Foundation head Zeki Başdemir and Midyat Syriac Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation head Kuryakos Ergün before the meeting.



The Catholic Syriac group planned to put forward its readiness to relocate the Church’s Patriarchate in Beirut to Turkey, and demand the return of their historical Patriarchate building in Mardin, which has been turned into a museum. In previous months, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu held a series of negotiations with Syriacs on the topic, and proposed bringing the Lebanonn and Damascus Patriarchates to Turkey.

Reactions

Ergün said his foundation would express its reaction to a Court of Appeals decision describing the monastery as an “invader” and demand support from Gül.

In addition to Ergün and Başdemir, Armenian Surp Pırgiç Foundation Hospital head Bedros Şirinoğlu, Armenian Catholic Foundation leader Bernard Sarıbay, Syriac Orthodox Foundations representative Sait Susin, Greek Foundation representative Andon Parisyanos, Jewish community representative Sami Herman and Bulgarian community representative Vasil Liyaze attended the meeting, which was organized through the efforts of Vingas.

While the Syriacs planned to discuss their problems at the meeting, the Armenian and Greek communities (except the Catholic Armenian Foundation) said they would thank President Gül for his support of the Foundations Law, which went into force last year. The Bulgarian and Jewish communities avoided making any statement. There was a crisis just before the meeting when it was revealed that a request from the Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Bible Church to attend the meeting and discuss the problems of Protestants living in Turkey had been refused. Chaldean Catholics, on the other hand, did not want to attend the meeting, although they were invited. Gedikpaşa Armenian Protestant Bible Church representative Cem Ercin expressed the church’s reaction to the refusal. “They call us ‘missionaries’; they won’t give us a church building when we request it, they shut us in apartments and then insult our churches because they are in apartment buildings; this is a great contradiction,” Ercin said.

Speaking to the Daily News, Vingas said he had paid a visit to the president early in the summer to facilitate this meeting. “We want to express the results we have experienced from the Foundations Law. Also we will express our expectations regarding the perception of citizenship one more time before the preparation of the new constitution,” Vingas said.

July/28/2012

Christians in Middle East call for unity


ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
VERCİHAN ZİFLİOĞLU

A group of Syriac, Chaldean and Assyrian intellectuals have published a declaration calling on Christians to unite after the latest developments in Syria. Some say they need to protect themselves in a federal structure

A group of intellectuals consisting of Syriacs, Chaldeans and Assyrians outside of Syria have issued a declaration calling on Christians to unite, saying that if an Islamist government came to power after the anticipated fall of President Bashar al-Assad it would be a disaster for all Christians in the region.

“We have to look after and protect ourselves in an autonomous region, the need for a federal structure is deeply felt,” Brussels-based Syriac TV channel Suryoyo’s political analyst Adnan Challma, who is leading the group, said.

Syriac, Chaldean and Assyrian intellectuals, who consider Christian communities to be under threat after the latest developments in Syria, published a declaration in Turkish, Syriac, English, German and French. The declaration started being shared with leading world media outlets on the night of July 25.

It is signed by Syriac, Chaldean and Assyrian intellectuals from all over the world, mostly from the U.S., Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands and Turkey.

Declaration

In the declaration, the group indicates that it does not support Syria’s Baathist regime, as it deprives the Syriac, Chaldean and Assyrian communities of their legal rights. However, “the opposition to the Baath dictatorship in Syria, which was democratic at the beginning, has acquired an Islamist tendency with foreign support,” the intellectuals said.

The declaration accuses Turkey, Qatar and Saudi Arabia of giving “armed and financial support” to the Islamist movement in Syria.

“A government formed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamists, pro-al-Qaeda figures and Salafists, would be a disaster for our people in Syria and all the Christians in the Middle East. Many times massacres have been committed against our people with cries of ‘Allahu akbar’ and ‘Muhammed Salâvat,’ throughout our long and tragic history,” the declaration read.

The declaration leaves the conflicts between Syriacs, Chaldeans and Asyrrians aside and invites them to form a union with all the Christians in Syria and the region against “the impending disasters.” It addresses political parties and organizations to form this union.

“As the oldest Christian community in the Middle East, we have experienced such threatening disasters many times before. Therefore it is impossible for us to support the impending disaster coming with slogans such as ‘Allahu akbar,’ ‘call to jihad,’ or ‘death to unbelievers,’ in İdlib, Homs and Deyrizor,” the declaration read. The declaration also speaks out against attempts to realize “armed invasions and [the creation of] buffer zones.”

Speaking in an interview with the Hürriyet Daily News Challma said he expected all Christian intellectuals in the world to support the call for union. A cooperative policy for Christians in Syria must immediately be put into practice, he said, otherwise Christians there may face a great disaster.

“Why don’t Christians found a country in the Middle East? We have to look after and protect ourselves in an autonomous region; the need for a federated structure is deeply felt,” he said.

July/27/2012

Lack of instructors hampers efforts for teaching Circassian


ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr

The Higher Education Board (YÖK) and the Education Ministry have responded positively to demands from Turkey’s 5.5 million Circassians for education in their native language.

Following the first steps taken by Mardin Artuklu University to offer Kurdish-language education in 2011, YÖK has now permitted Erciyes, Sakarya and Düzce Universities to open Circassian professorships. Because the number of instructors is not sufficient yet,Circassian education cannot begin this year.

Granting permission is not enough; the state also has to find instructors, Caucasian Associations Federation head Necip Kadıoğlu said, speaking to Hürriyet Daily News.

Lack of instructors

Erciyes University will not offer Circassian education next term for lack of instructors, said Üstün Tuncer of the university’s Press and Public Relations department.

Also, because there is no instructor available, Düzce University cannot start its Circassian program, even though YÖK has approved it, said Student Affairs Department head Tahir Güney.

The department of Caucasian Languages in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences was recently opened, and preparations are underway to start classes next year, Tahir said. When asked whether instructors could not be brought from Circassia, Güney said it was not possible without the approval of YÖK.

“Since there are already many foreign instructors working in Turkey, they cannot prevent [us from] bringing instructors from our homeland. We cannot tolerate that,” Kadıoğlu said. “The state charged

Mardin Artuklu University for Kurdish education. That means concrete steps can also be taken about Circassian if they wish.”

Negotiations with the Board of Education and Discipline are ongoing and coming to an end, and the federation demanded that class minimums for native language education be abolished, Kadıoğlu said.

A 10-person minimum was put forward for native-language education in primary and middle schools. According to the condition, there must be at least 10 students in a class.

“We are insistently emphasizing that education in one’s native language should start from preschool. Also the condition of 10 students for optional native-language education is not very reasonable,” Kadıoğlu said. The federation also expects state support for textbooks, he said, adding that they will demand their rights until the end.

Once education begins to be offered in Circassian, the instructor problem will be solved within a few years, Kadıoğlu said.

July/26/2012

Tutor tells of minority schools

ISTANBUL - Hürriyet Daily News
Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr


Keşmer, a former ‘Turkish vice principal’ and teacher at minority schools, says he told his experiences showing the ‘intensive control mechanism’ in these schools in a book named ‘A bag of Istanbul soil’

Emin Keşmer, who taught Turkish language and worked as a vice principal at Armenian and Greek minority schools for fifteen years, explains the difficulties and “otherization” faced at minority schools in his book, “Bir Poşet İstanbul Toprağı” (A bag of Istanbul soil).

Keşmer wrote the book after retiring and it has recently been published by the Siyah-Beyaz Publishing House. Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily News about the book, he said he had started working as a teacher in 1972, and that the years when he taught at minority schools between 1991 and 2006, became a turning point for him. Keşmer said he had had some prejudices against the Armenian and Greek communities before getting to know them, when he taught the Turkish language at the historical Dadyan Armenian School in Bakırköy between 1991 and 1998 and was appointed to Fener Greek School in Balat, also known as the “Kırmızı Mektep” (Red School) as a vice principal. He continued his job at the latter until he retired in 2006.

“During the first days I taught at Dadyan, a colleague of mine, teaching Turkish language and literature, told me he was disturbed by the children’s speaking Armenian with each other. At that moment, I really understood what kind of duty my job required,” Keşmer said.

“It seems as if there is no monitoring mechanism. But in fact, there is intensive monitoring and no confidence is felt toward ‘others.’ For example, if Turkey wins a national match, the children are monitored [to see] if they are happy or not about the result. I observed that the children were hurt and afraid, above all,” Keşmer said.

According to Keşmer, a different period started in his professional life after he was appointed to the Fener Greek High School as a Turkish vice principal. “I have never been the trumpet of the state, so my colleagues filed several complaint petitions against me to the national Education Ministry, as I did not fulfill my ‘monitoring’ duties,” he said.

National anthem monitored

According to Keşmer, people always approached Greek schools with curiosity and regarded them as “other.” “For example, whether national holidays were celebrated with enthusiasm at the Greek school was examined. Also, how they sang the Turkish national anthem was monitored. There were only 52 students, after all. How could they sound [enthusiastic] even if they shouted?”

Along with Greek and Armenian principals, Turkish vice principals are appointed to minority schools for supervision reasons. “Appointing Turkish vice principals must stop,” Keşmer said. “The citizen and the state must reciprocally trust each other; there is no need for paranoia.” “Many people migrating from this land take a piece of soil from their birthplace to be put on their graves after their death. So [with the book’s name], I would like to emphasize both these experiences and homesickness,” Keşmer said. k HDN

July/25/2012