Posted on 12/18/2012 7:17:38 PM PST by marshmallow
Istanbul, December 18 (World Watch Monitor) Three years after a Syrian Orthodox foundation applied to build a church in Istanbul, the Greater Istanbul Municipality has granted them a large plot of land and a building permit.
Banner headlines in the Turkish media praised the early-December decision as a first in the history of the Republic, declaring that never before had Turkey allowed a non-Muslim minority to build an official new house of worship.
Still, Syriac Christians were far from pleased.
For one thing, the land they were granted by the municipality is, in fact, a Latin Catholic cemetery.
We dont want a Syriac church on top of a cemetery! the website suryaniler.com stated. This is a big scandal.
In fact, the graveyard had been donated back in 1868 to the Italian Catholic Church in what is now Istanbuls Yesilkoy district. It was then officially registered as Catholic property in 1936, although later confiscated in 1951 by the city.
The Council of Europes 2011 progress report noted that Turkey was not fully implementing Law No. 3998, which states that cemeteries belonging to minority communities can no longer be taken over by local municipalities.
According to lawyer Nail Karakas, the Latin Catholic foundation had applied to the city last summer, in accordance with the governments August 2011 pledge to restore expropriated minority properties, to regain possession of their property and resume Christian burials in the graveyard.
So Syriac leaders are insisting that the cemetery land newly designated for their church be returned instead to its rightful owners. It is clear that (the authorities) want to cause conflict between the minority communities, commented Syriac layman Sabo Boyaci.
Boyaci also faulted the government for trying to exploit the Syriac community politically. I dont believe the governments sincerity. They delivered this land to us...
(Excerpt) Read more at worldwatchmonitor.org ...
The peace and tolerance of islam.
But we are evil because we object to a mosque at the 9/11 site...
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