EKD Press Releases
"A solution that meets the standards of the rule of law"
EKD and the German Bishops' Conference on the litigation surrounding Mor Gabriel monastery
February 15, 2011
The German Bishops' Conference and the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD) observe the worsening difficulties of the Syrian Orthodox Church in the Republic of Turkey with great concern.
It was with consternation that we learned of the recent ruling of the Supreme Court in Ankara against the over 1600-year-old Mor Gabriel monastery. The court's decision reversed a previous ruling confirming the monastery's property rights and transferred a large portion of the monastery's grounds to the Turkish State.
Mor Gabriel, which was founded in 397, is the most important Syriac monastery in the Tur Abdin region in southeast Anatolia. The monastery school has great importance for the Syriac language and culture, as well as theological training. Around two thirds of the diaspora scattered around the world serving as clergy and teachers of religion in the Syrian Orthodox Church are former students of Mor Gabriel.
To our view, the Supreme Court in its recent decision ignored the fact that the monastery had presented documents legitimizing its claim to the lands that the lower court had recognized as valid proof of ownership. Our concern is also warranted by the fact that the local forestry authorities placed the monastery in a critical situation before the Treasury Department did, by declaring portions of the monastery's property to be woodlands and, as such, property of the State. As a consequence of these decisions by Turkish authorities, the walls that protect the monastery from trespassing, land theft and grazing are now threatened with demolition. Furthermore, we fear that this recent court action may be a sign that the unfounded accusations against the church's leader Archbishop Mor Timotheos Samuel Aktas and the president of the monastery's foundation Kuryakos Ergün of usurpation of State property could still lead to criminal sanctions.
In view of these circumstances, we emphatically support the monastery's intention to appeal against the recent ruling. We expect from the Turkish government a solution that complies with the standards imposed by the rule of law, which must be met by all candidates for admission into the European Union. We ask the German Federal government to remind the Turkish government with unrelenting insistence that religious freedom in Turkey must also be guaranteed for churches and Christians, and that the bases of their existence must not be destroyed by the State.
Bonn and Hanover, February 9, 2011
The chairman of the German Bishops' Conference Archbishop Dr Robert Zollitsch and the chair of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany Präses Nikolaus Schneider