Radikal, 3 Ocak 1998

Kilise cami oldu.

ERZURUM - Yakutiye beldesinde Belediye tarafından camiye dönüştürülen tarihi kilisenin, yeni haliyle resmi açılışı yapılmadı. 1850'de, Ermeniler döneminde yaptırılan Ortodoks kilisesinin restorasyonu, Refahyol Hükümeti döneminde Yakutiye Belediyesi'ne verildi.

Kilise 15 ay süren restorasyondan sonra camiye çevrildi. Yakutiye Belediye Başkanı Muhyettin Aksak, tarihi yapının adının Fetih Camisi olarak değiştirildiğini, ancak son anda resmi açılışın iptal edildi§ini belirtti. (aa)

Erzurum'da gergin panel

Erzurum Yakutiye Belediyesi'yle Palandöken Vakfı'nın `Demokrasi, İnsan Hakları ve Türkiye' konulu paneli, 50 kişilik ülkücü grubun, panelistlerden Yeni Yüzyıl Gazetesi Yazarı Ali Bayramoğlu'nu bir yazısından dolayı protesto etmesi nedeniyle gergin başladı. Cemal Gürsel Spor Salonu'ndaki panelde tribünler, çoğunluğu türbanlı kadınların oluşturduğu kalabalık tarafından dolduruldu. Prof. Dr. Hüseyin Hatemi, Radikal Gazetesi Yazarı Etyen Mahçupyan ve Yeni Şafak Gazetesi Yazarı Ömer Çelik'in konuşmacı olarak, Kayseri Belediye Başkanı Şükrü Karatepe'nin de telefonla katıldığı panelde, ülkücü grup `yuh' sesleriyle Bayramoğlu'nu protesto etti. Ellerinde "Demokrasi bölücülük değildir", "Satılmışlar memleketi bölemezsiniz", "Karadeniz'e Ermeni - Rum diyen ya bölücüdür, ya vatansız. Ya bu lekeyi silin, silmezseniz bu ilk adımdır" yazılı pankart taşıyan ülkücüler, Yakutiye Belediye Başkanı Muhyettin Aksak'ın "Dinlemek istemeyen burayı terk etsin" uyarısı üzerine salondan çıktı. (Fotoğraflar: Gürkan ATA, Eyüphan KILIÇ / ERZURUM)

The New York Times, January 23, 1998

Distrust Turns to Fear for Greeks in Turkey

By STEPHEN KINZER

ISTANBUL, Turkey -- An arson attack and a killing at a holy Eastern Orthodox site in Istanbul, the second violent assault here in two months, have led senior Orthodox figures to question Turkey's commitment to protect their church.

The government has rejected all such doubts and asserted that the police are doing their best to arrest those who carry out anti-Orthodox attacks.

Only a few thousand Orthodox faithful remain in Turkey, which is predominantly Muslim though highly secular. But Istanbul is the seat of the Patriarchate that oversees Orthodox churches worldwide, so the position of Orthodoxy here is especially sensitive.

The debate is further tinged by the fact that many Turks equate the Orthodox faith with Greece, Turkey's main European rival, and are suspicious of Orthodox activities.

Arguments over whether Turkey adequately protects the Orthodox church have taken on a new intensity since an arson attack on Jan. 12 on the shrine of St. Therapon, which houses a holy spring near the Hagia Sophia, once the mother church of Orthodoxy, later a mosque, now a museum.

After the fire was put out, Orthodox clergymen entered the shrine and concluded that eight icons, a holy book and a cross were missing. After a search, the custodian's badly bruised body was found in the shrine's well.

At a police inquest, one witness suggested that the victim, Vasilios Haviaropoulos, had hidden himself in the well and drowned. But his son, an Orthodox priest, said the body was found with hands and feet bound, and he rejected police statements to the effect that no Muslim could have committed such an act, and that it must have been done by a Greek.

In a statement, the Orthodox Patriarchate said it was "grieving, shocked and anxious at this crime." It predicted that the attack "will result in the further departure of our people and will weaken this sacred institution of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the rampart of Orthodoxy and our pious faithful."

The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America issued a statement in New York saying, "Americans of Orthodox background expect that their fellow Christians will be protected in accordance with established international standards of law and order."

The police commander in charge of the case, Mustafa Saglam, said Thursday that he had assigned eight detectives to work full time on the investigation. He said he was pursuing it "five times more meticulously because of its international angle."

But such assurances have not calmed all fears here.

The Greek Ambassador to Turkey, Dimitrios Nezeritis, said in an interview: "If there are efforts, they are not sufficient. I have seen no arrests, not this time and not in the past.

"This last murder was a savage one. You could argue that a thief would very easily take whatever he wanted from a 78-year-old man or whatever he was, and immobilize him. But the fact that he was brutally murdered seems to indicate to me that someone enjoyed killing him."

"There are extremists in any country who want to go to some excess," he continued. "We have also had some cases in Greece regarding the Muslim minority. But at least we have been able to apprehend a few people."

A spokesman for the Patriarchate, asked whether the authorities were doing all they could to protect Orthodox sites and arrest perpetrators of anti-Orthodox crimes, replied: "There are some people who care deeply and are doing what they can. But there are also large segments that could and should do a lot more."

The Foreign Ministry issued a statement conceding that a killing had been committed during the arson but rejecting assertions that security was lax or that police efforts to solve the crime were less than diligent. "We deplore all such violent events," the ministry said. "They sadden us deeply, and cannot be tolerated or accepted."

The attack last week followed another assault aimed at the Orthodox community: On Dec. 2, just days after Patriarch Bartholomew returned from a trip to the United States, a bomb was thrown at the Patriarchate buildings. A deacon was seriously hurt, masonry was destroyed and windows were blown out. No one has been arrested, but city officials have instructed the police to build a watchtower to allow 24-hour surveillance of the area.

Before leaving on his American trip, Patriarch Bartholomew had taken part in a weeklong tour of the Black Sea to focus attention on environmental problems. Radical nationalists in Trabzon stoned a group they mistakenly believed he was leading, and an Islamic newspaper reported the incident under a headline reading, "We Taught the Priest a Lesson in Trabzon."

Some Turkish nationalists say the Orthodox Church is a wedge for Greek expansionism, that Orthodox priests are its agents and that their visits to the Black Sea region are intended to assert influence over a region they would like to control.

"Putting a security guard at the door of every church is not the solution," said Isa Karatas, editor of a magazine aimed at Turkish Protestants. "Turkish society needs to be enlightened about the nature of Christianity."

Patriarch Bartholomew lives in an odd theological limbo here. His position is a legacy of the days when Istanbul, then known as Constantinople, was the center of the Eastern Orthodox world. He does not have an authority over Orthodox bishops comparable to that of the pope over Roman Catholic bishops, but he is widely respected as a spiritual leader.

Turkey does not recognize the Patriarch's international status, and officially considers him to be only the head of a single Istanbul diocese. In public he chooses his words carefully, seeking to reflect the interests of Orthodox churches around the world while taking care not to offend his Turkish hosts.

Most of this country's ethnic Greeks and other Orthodox faithful left during or after fighting between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s, but several thousand remain in Istanbul. The one remaining Orthodox seminary here, on an island in the Sea of Marmara, has been closed since 1971. The Patriarchate and several foreign governments have unsuccessfully urged the government to allow it to reopen.

Restrictions on the Orthodox Church here and on the Muslim minority in Greece are a source of continuing conflict. When former Orthodox churches in Turkey are turned into mosques, as happened this month in a village near Erzurum, Muslims living in Greece protest because they fear the closing of their mosques in retaliation.

"Such egoistic behavior improves nothing," said Taner Mustafoglu, a spokesman for Greek Muslims. "It only increases tension in the relationship between Turkey and Greece."

GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation) & MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE (Greek Affiliate of Minority Rights Group International) P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece; tel. 30-1-620.01.20; fax: 30-1-807.57.67; e-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/

PRESS RELEASE

14/1/1998

TOPIC: VIOLENT CONFRONTATION BETWEEN THE PARA-STATE MECHANISMS OF GREECE AND TURKEY

The cooperating organizations Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Greece express their repugnance at the murder (12/1) of the Christian sacristan , Vassilis Haviaropoulos, at the Holy Spring of Saint Therapon in Istanbul. We also blame the Turkish nationalist circles in Turkey who do not hesitate to use these means to fuel intolerance and fanaticism, as well as the Turkish security authorities for their failure to bring to justice those responsible for many similar incidents against their Christian fellow-countrymen.

Equally, we feel the need to condemn outright the beatings of members of the Turkish minority which have taken place during the last 15 days in Thrace. It is typical that in spite of the fact that our office in Komotini had recently informed the local police and other appropriate state authorities that it must take the necessary security measures to safeguard the personal safety of our minority fellow-citizens, the authorities' indifference resulted in the unhindered perpetuation of physical violence. It appears that the recent issuing of identity papers to the stateless minority people in Thrace has infuriated the nationalistic elements in the area to such a degree that they resort to violent acts and beatings, even using under-age children to carry them out. Unfortunately, the police acted only "the day after the fair", in fact only after specific criticism by the Turkish Foreign Ministry.

Also, we condemn the vast majority of the Greek Press, which suppressed the news about the unacceptable violent attacks that took place in Thrace, thus proceeding in an orchestrated populist campaign of misinformation. Finally we invite the Greek and Turkish governments not to involve the minorities of both sides in their political games and to intervene immediately to stop these confrontations between the para-state mechanisms of both countries. _______________________________________

Greek Helsinki Monitor & Minority Rights Group - Greece P.O. Box 51393 GR-145190 Kifisia Greece Tel. +30-1-620.01.20 Fax +30-1-807.57.67 e-mail: office@greekhelsinki.gr http://www.greekhelsinki.gr ________________________________________

Date: Mon, 02 Feb 1998 15:51:43 +0000

From: "Serdar M. Degirmencioglu"

Subject: TRT GAP'dan inciler (ya da Erturk Yondem'den kin tohumlari)

Gecen TRT GAP'a goz atacagim tuttu. Bu kanal beyin yikama amacini pek gizlemeyen bir kanal. Saat 15:10 falan. Bir de ne goreyim, o bildik, tanidik, igrenc ses, yine o acinakli tonla yalan ustune yalan gonderiyor izleyenlere.

Bir bolumu dogrudan B. Trakyalilari ilgilendirdigi icin hemen not aldim. Buyrun okuyun, sizin de haberiniz olsun.

………………………………………………………………….

23 Ocak Perde Arkasi Programindan (TRT GAP, Program Yonetmeni Erturk Yondem)

Anladigim kadariyla programin konusu Turkiye neden AB'ye giremedi. Soylenen sozcugu sozcugune su: "Zaten AB'nin her ulkesi Turkiye dusmanidir. Bizi elbette AB'ne almazlar."

Bu ulkelerin dusmanligi hemen kanitlanabilirmis. Ama en basta Yunanistan oldugu icin ondan sozetmisler.

Surekli "Yunanlilar" dendi. Iletilmek istenen su: Her Yunan Turkiye'nin dusmanidir. Yunanistan Turkiye'yi elestiremezmis. Cunku:

"B. Trakya Turklerinin hicbir hakkini [egitim vs.] vermeyen, bu haklari isteyenleri doven, hatta olduren Yunanistan …"

Goruntude linc edilme durumunda bir adam. Nerde nasil belli degil. Tekrar tekrar ayni goruntuler gosteriliyor.

Sonraki iddia da ilginc:

"Devlet gucleri bu saldirilari [kastedilen B. Trakyadaki olanlar, basket maclarinda izleyicenlerin Turkiyeden gelen oyunculara saldirmasi, Selanikte Turkiyeli isadamlarina yapilan saldirilar] neden engellemedi? Cunku bu olaylari duzenleyen Yunan Gizli Servisidir."

Yani Yunanistan Gizli Servisi ve her Yunanli nerde olursa olsun Turk dusmanidir.

Ve hemen ekliyor programdaki ses: "Yunan palikaryalari kasiniyor." Yani ayaklarini denk alsinlar, yoksa ezeriz. Buyrun, haydi savasa!

Iste bize askerde de izletilen programlarin yapimcisi (o programlarda Erturk Yondem PKK pesindeydi.), Devletin TV'sinden aynen bize askerde yeniden yeniden iletilen mesaji tekrarliyor: "Yunanlilar can dusmanimizdir. Zaten her bela yabancilardan kaynaklidir; dis guclerin oyunudur."

B. Trakyali arkadaslar bu kinci, paranoyak milliyetciligin cok iyi farkinda olsunlar istiyorum. Benzeri GR'de de var. Arada kalan kim? B. Trakyalilar, Turkiye'deki azinliklar ve Kibrislilar.

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu

Date: Sun, 12 Apr 1998 20:53:00 +0000

To: West Thracian Minorities Discussion List

From: "Serdar M. Degirmencioglu"

Subject: Greek cemetery in Istanbul desecrated

Here is a bit of news that landed in my mailbox the other day.

It saddens me to hear such news again and again. What on earth does anyone gain by doing this?

I am afraid so long as people on both sides of the Aegean are brainwashed to hate the Greek or the Turk, there will be no end to such news.

Serdar M. Degirmencioglu

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ISTANBUL, April 2 (AFP) - Vandals desecrated more than 50 graves in a Greek cemetery in Istanbul, the Greek consulate and witnesses at the cemetery said Thursday. The tombstones of 51 graves in the Agios Eleftherios cemetery in Istanbul's Kurtulus district were toppled over and some bones and skulls were dug up and left strewn about, they said. A number of marble crosses were also broken, the Greek Consul, Fotis Xydas, told AFP. The attack was discovered on Tuesday, Xydas said. Turkish authorities were still investigating, he added.