Posts tagged as:

Turkey

Armenian church in Turkey is used as garbage dump

by OCP April 29, 2012 Featured News

27/4/2012 The 11th-century Armenian church in Yenipinar village of Turkey’s Batman Province is used as a garbage dump by the locals. Village resident Ali Ucar noted that he is very troubled that the villagers are taking the ruined church’s stones and using them in their stables, Haberler news agency of Turkey informs. He stressed that [...]

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A Letter to Etchmiadzin and Cilicia Catholicos

by OCP April 27, 2012 News

Nilay VARDAR nilay@bianet.org İstanbul – BİA Haber Merkezi 25/4/2012 The defenders of human rights sent a letter to Etchmiadzin and Cilicia Catholicos and declared that “Only after the recognition of the Genocide and the restitution of and/or compensation for the confiscated property of Armenians, that justice can be established.” The defenders of human rights sent [...]

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Armenians mark genocide with march to Turkish Embassy

by OCP April 25, 2012 Featured News

Van Meguerditchian The Daily Star 25/4/2012 ANTELIAS/ RABIEH, Lebanon: Nearly 25,000 Lebanese-Armenians marched to the Turkish Embassy in Metn’s Rabieh Tuesday, calling on Ankara to recognize the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Army at the height of World War I. The large turnout – which surprised even organizers – prompted the Turkish Embassy to [...]

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123 Armenian Genocide survivors live in Armenia

by OCP April 24, 2012 Featured News

24/4/2012 123 people, who survived the Armenian Genocide organized in Ottoman Turkey in 1915-1922, are currently living in Armenia, the head of social statistics and National Statistics Service of Armenia Nelly Baghdasaryan told Armenian News-NEWS.am. As of July 1, 2011, 123 survivors of the Armenian Genocide currently live in Armenia, while as of July 1, [...]

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5,000 to protest on 97 anniversary of Armenian Genocide

by OCP April 24, 2012 News

The Daily Star 23/4/2012 BEIRUT: On the 97 anniversary of the Armenian Genocide, 5,000 people are expected to protest Tuesday in front of the Turkish Embassy in Beirut against Ankara’s refusal to recognize the mass killings as genocide. The commemoration will kick off with a Mass at the Armenian Orthodox Catholicosate in Antelias, north of [...]

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Easter is celebrated at Armenian church in Turkey’s Diyarbakir

by OCP April 17, 2012 Featured News

16/4/2012 An Easter Liturgy was celebrated for the first time in the St. Giragos Armenian Church in Diyarbakir, Turkey, ever since its restoration. The Divine Liturgy was served by pastor Avedis Tabashyan of the Forty Children Church in Hatay Province, Turkish Haberfx informs. Aside from the Diyarbakir Armenians, Mayor Abdullah Demirbas …

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The Chicago Tribune reports on ‘With faith and hope, Turkey builds a new identity’

by OCP April 12, 2012 News

Istanbul, Turkey 4/11/2012 The Chicago Tribune’s John Kass reported on ‘With faith and hope, Turkey builds a new identity’. The article can be found on the website of the Chicago Tribune and includes, ‘A video with Patriarch Bartholomew in Istanbul’. he kind and gracious man has many visitors waiting and piles of paperwork on his [...]

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Christian clerics alarmed at growing threats, persecution in Turkey

by OCP April 10, 2012 Featured News
This file photo shows the Dirisu home church located in Istanbul’s Şişli district. Many Christian clerics say police [officers] keep watch at their door during mass. DAILY NEWS photo

ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News 10/4/2012 Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr In the wake of an attack against an Istanbul Protestant Pastor, Christian Clerics in Turkey say they feel alarmed at the accelerating number of such incidents and even hesitate to open their doors to people Christian clerics in Turkey have expressed their anxiety regarding the growing [...]

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Turkey returns historic graveyards to non-Muslim communities

by OCP April 10, 2012 News

10/4/2012 Six historic graveyards were returned to İstanbul’s Jewish, Greek and Armenian communities. Six historic graveyards were returned to İstanbul’s Jewish, Greek and Armenian communities on Thursday, following a decision by a government board that regulates the practices of the country’s non-Muslim communities. The decision of the Directorate General for Foundations (VGM) to restore the [...]

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Achadjian Introduces Return of Churches Bill in Calif. Assembly

by OCP April 10, 2012 News
Assemblymember Katcho Achadjian

9/4/2012 SACRAMENTO—The Armenian National Committee of America-Western Region welcomed the introduction of Assembly Joint Resolution 34 (AJR 34) introduced by California Assembly Member Katcho Achadjian (R-33). The resolution calls on the Republic of Turkey to respect religious freedom and return church properties to its minority communities. “I believe that this resolution is an important step [...]

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Armenian church of Diarbeqir turned into handicraft center

by OCP April 6, 2012 Featured News

05/04/2012 Ancient Armenian church located in the region of Suri, southeastern province of Diarbeqir, Turkey, turned into a handicraft center after it was repaired. Turkish daily “Vatan” writes, built 142 years ago the Armenian church has become a handicraft center for women where silk manufacturing and silversmith’s skills are taught. Up to 1960s Armenians and [...]

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Hopes to Revive the Christian Area of Turkey

by OCP April 5, 2012 Featured News
Orthodox Christians at Sumela Monastery, 15 August 2010/Umit Bektas

By SUSANNE GÜSTEN 4/4/2012 IDIL, TURKEY — Clambering over the rubble of what was once his hometown, Robert Tutus pointed to a spot just up the road from where his family’s house had stood. “This is where my father was assassinated,” he said. “Two men walked up to him as he was returning home one [...]

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Galata school returns to Patriarchate, Bartholomew I demands legal recognition

by OCP April 3, 2012 News

NAT da Polis 1/4/2012 The school is located in Istanbul’s historic neighbourhood of Pera, once inhabited by the city’s Christians. The ecumenical patriarch wants the return of three churches confiscated by Ataturk’s government, and the legal recognition of the Orthodox Church as well as the right to use the title of ‘ecumenical patriarch’, something the [...]

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Fener Greek Patriarch ‘encourages’ Turkish government for minority rights

by OCP March 30, 2012 News

27/3/2012 Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr Even though the Patriarch praised the government in an international platform, this does not mean all of the problems of the Greek community had been totally solved, opinion leaders from the Greek community in Turkey have said. Turkey’s stance toward minorities is praiseworthy, Fener Greek Patriarch Bartholomew said while meeting the [...]

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Faith Digest: Report names Turkey as offender

by OCP March 30, 2012 News

30/3/2012 Turkey cited for religious freedom woes. Turkey stands as a new and controversial addition to an annual list of the worst offenders of religious freedom released by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. Four of nine commissioners objected to adding Turkey to the list of Countries of Particular Concern—a who’s who of dictatorships [...]

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Turkey Should Do More to Protect its Christians

by OCP March 28, 2012 Featured News
Germany's president Christian Wulff, left, is welcomed by Bishop Grigorios Melki Urek of Adiyaman in Tarsus, Turkey. Nov-2010

Turkey, U.S. Department of State, Religion, Policy and Politics, Islamic World Turan Kayaoğlu, Visiting Fellow, Brookings Doha Center Today’s Zaman 26/3/2012 In a surprising and controversial move, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2012 Annual Report released on Thursday recommended that the U.S. State Department categorize Turkey as a “Country of [...]

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Turkey’s Armenian Deputy Patriarch attends Vatican’s former rep. funeral

by OCP March 26, 2012 News

26/3/2012 PanARMENIAN.Net – According to Sunday’s Zaman, leaders and representatives of Turkey’s various religious communities attended the funeral of Monsignor Georges Marovitch, a former Vatican diplomatic official in Turkey, who passed away on March 22 morning at the age of 81. Roman Catholic Bishop Louis-Armel Pelâtre, the apostolic vicar of Istanbul, as well as Turkey’s [...]

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Syriac leader refuses to move patriarchate to Turkey

by OCP March 23, 2012 Featured News
Echove Gouriye says the patriarchate holds Syriac population together in Syria.

Vercihan Ziflioğlu vercihan.ziflioglu@hurriyet.com.tr ISTANBUL – Hürriyet Daily News 22/3/2012 The head of the Syriac Union Party in Syria stated his opposition to the relocation of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarchate in Damascus and the Syriac Catholic Patriarchate in Beirut back into Turkey. “We have a large population in Syria, and the patriarchate is the highest institution [...]

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Houses of the Holy

by OCP March 23, 2012 Featured News
The cupola of the medieval Georgian Orthodox monastery of Oskhi in northeastern Turkey

Eka Chitanava 21/3/2012 A diplomatic deal to restore crumbling Georgian monasteries in Turkey faces stiff Orthodox opposition. TBILISI | The cupola of Oshki monastery dates to the 10th century, and it’s falling apart. Medieval frescoes are peeling off the building’s moss-covered interior walls. In recent years two stone columns covered with bas-reliefs have been plundered. [...]

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The World’s Worst Religious Persecutors – OpEd

by OCP March 21, 2012 Featured News

By Nina Shea 20/3/2012 Today, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (Uscirf) released its 14th annual report, which it is mandated to do under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The report identifies the world’s worst persecutors and makes foreign-policy recommendations, which are non-binding, to the administration and Congress. Its decisions are based [...]

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Bulgaria, Turkey Move to Mutually Open Cultural Centers

by OCP March 16, 2012 News

13/3/2012 Bulgaria will launch its cultural center in Istanbul, while Turkey will open one in Sofia, it has been made clear. On Tuesday, Bulgaria’s Council of Ministers approved a project for an intergovernmental memorandum with Turkey for the creation of the two cultural centers. The cultural centers will have the status of state cultural institutes [...]

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Armenians ask for equal citizenship in new charter

by OCP March 14, 2012 Featured News
Acting Armenian Patriarch Aram Ateşyan joins a meeting in Parliament.

ANKARA – Hürriyet Daily News 14/3/2012 Göksel Bozkurt göksel.bozkurt@hurriyet.com.tr Acting Patriarch Aram Ateşyan, the religious leader of Turkish Armenians, asked for equal citizenship for all the Turkish Republic’s citizens, as well as an “embracing” charter, during an appearance in front of Parliament’s Constitution Conciliation Commission yesterday. Ateşyan issued a call for a definition of “constitutional [...]

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T. Akcam: “Christians in Turkey are in danger”

by OCP March 13, 2012 Featured News
Taner Akcam

12/3/2012 Turkish historian and sociologist Taner Akcam gave an interview to Turkish Taraf daily. During the interview he also spoke about the protest action devoted to “Khojalu genocide” which took place in Istanbul, Taksim Square. During the protest the participants held Fascism posters and sounded mottos. As the Turkish historian underlined Turks must face with [...]

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US senators say “a gesture of goodwill” is not enough and urge Turkey to return Christian churches

by OCP March 13, 2012 News

By SIRANUYSH GEVORGYAN ArmeniaNow reporter 12/3/2012 Three American Republican senators have drafted a resolution, urging Turkey “to return to their rightful owners all Christian churches” as well as to “end all forms of religious discrimination.” Last December a similar resolution was adopted by the House of Representatives of the US Congress. The Armenian lobbyist organizations [...]

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The Patriarch is Ecumenical

by OCP March 13, 2012 Featured News

12/3/2012 GÖKHAN BACIK g.bacik@todayszaman.com It is sometimes very difficult to understand why Turkey refrains from reforms in various fields. In the past, we used to think that Turkey was lagging behind in reforms because of the attitudes of the Kemalist elites. However, in this Turkey of 2012, where non-Kemalist actors almost completely dominate the political [...]

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