Religious Freedom Measure Calls on Turkey to Return all Stolen Christian Church Properties
WASHINGTON–Senators Scott Brown (R-Mass.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) introduced a bipartisan measure, today, calling upon the Secretary of State to press Turkey to return stolen Christian church properties and allow full freedom of faith for religious minorities, reported the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA).
Senators Scott Brown, Dianne Feinstein and Mark Kirk introduced the resolution demanding Turkey to return stolen church properties.
Spearheaded by Senator Brown, who holds a seat on the Armed Services Committee, Senator Feinstein, who serves as Chairwoman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, and Senator Kirk, who serves on the Appropriations Committee, the measure most notably calls upon Turkey to return all confiscated Christian church properties, including “churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties, including movable properties, such as artwork, manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts.”
It also directly addresses Turkey’s obstruction of religious education, appointments, and succession within the Greek and Armenian churches by calling for the Turkish government to “allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to organize and administer prayer services, religious education, clerical training, appointments, and succession, religious gatherings, social services, including ministry to the needs of the poor and infirm, and other religious activities.” More broadly, the resolution calls upon the government of Turkey to honor its international obligations to end all forms of religious persecution and to protect the rights and religious freedoms of Christians.
“We join with friends of Armenia and believers in religious liberty across our entire country in thanking Senators Brown, Feinstein and Kirk for their leadership in seeking the rightful return by Turkey of stolen Christian church properties,” said Aram Hamparian, Executive Director of the ANCA. “In introducing the Return of Churches resolution in the Senate, they are building on the overwhelming bipartisan adoption of this religious freedom measure by the House, and increasing pressure on the Administration to reaffirm – in words, actions and results – our nation’s fundamental commitment to religious rights and freedom of faith. We look forward to working with all three Senators and with each of their colleagues in support of the timely adoption of this resolution.”
An identical measure, introduced last June in the U.S. House by Representatives by Ed Royce (R-CA), a senior member of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and Howard Berman (D-CA), the Ranking Democrat on this panel, was adopted overwhelming in Committee in July, and then approved by the full House with a voice vote in mid-December of 2011. Both the House and Senate measures reflect the strength of a growing movement to highlight, confront, and eventually reverse decades of official Turkish policy of destroying Christian church properties, desecrating holy sites, discriminating against Christian communities, and denying the right of Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Pontians, Arameans (Syriacs), and others to practice their faith in freedom.
The Return of Churches resolution is consistent with many other resolutions adopted by the U.S. Congress over the past several decades defending religious freedom and protecting sacred sites and places of worship, as well as with the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and America’s longstanding leadership in supporting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The territory of present-day Turkey, home to many of the most important centers of early Christianity – most notably Nicaea, Ephesus, Chalcedon, and Constantinople – contains, to this day, a rich legacy of Christian heritage, including thousands of religious sites and properties.
To learn more about the Return of Christian Churches Resolution, visit:
Turks will never return… they will destroy more by their axes…
They have no respect to human rights
How can they respect religion
They don’t recognize Kurds who are Sunni Muslim like them…
They have Culture and Language…Existed before them…
How they recognize our Churches…And return them
Don’t dream
Unless their own God arrives and order them to return…
Will they obey to their God
Might not as well…
They will punish even their god
To lie once again and say their God has Armenian blood
Did you forget Akhtamar
Still the Holly Cross has no Cross on the dome
Pray for few honest people they kept it in 1951…
[Yaser Kamal ( Auther)
Avni Basman (Turkish education minister in 1951),
Zakarya Mildanoğlu
Now Repaired as a museum…No one should pray there…
Our God is old their God is young… He still can fight
and can keep the cross out of their door…
—————
Vandalism of Holly Cross Church in 1951
After the Armenian Genocide, the church has been exposed to extensive vandalism. Before the restoration of the church, the reliefs on the church wall used as a poligon. Zakarya Mildanoğlu, an architect who was involved in the restoration process of the church, explains the situation during an interview with Hrant Dink# as “The facade of the church is full of bullet holes. Some of them are so big that, they cannot be covered during the renovation process. During many conferences related to the restoration of the Akhtamar church, the process of covering the bullet holes are identified as the hardest part of the restoration by academicians and architects. Most of the Armenian churches and gravestones have been exposed to vandalism as a part of the Turkish government policy which aims to destroy the Armenian heritage in Anatolia.
During 1951, Turkish government took a decision to destroy the church with
Sledge hammers. Yasar Kemal a very famous Turkish writer, managed to stop the destruction of the church. He explains the situation to Alain Bosquet as “I was in a ship from Tatvan to Van. I met with a military officer Dr. Cavit Bey onboard. I told him in this city there is a church descended from Armenians. It is a masterpiece.
These days, they are demolishing this church. I will take you there tomorrow.
This church is a monument of Anatolia. Can you help me to stop the destruction?
Other day we went there with the military officer. They have already demolished
the small chapel next to the church. The military officer became angry and told the workers that; I am ordering you to stop working. I will meet with governor.
There will be no movement until I return to the island again. The workers immediately stopped the demolition. We arrived to Van city center. I contacted with the newspaper Cumhuriyet. They informed the ministry of education about the demolition. Two days later, Minister Avni Başman telegraphed the Van governor and ordered to stop the demolition permanently on June 25, 1951, the day when the order came is the liberation
day of the church.” (Wikipedia, 2011)
Khachkars: Armenian carved cross-stone appeared since 6th century, is a cross-bearing carved memorial stele covered with rosettes and botanical motifs. The largest collection in the world (more than ten thousand thombstones) was formerly located in a medieval cemetery in Julfa, Nakhichevan (historically an Armenian land) until it was destroyed recently (during 2005) by Azerbaijan government. The European Parliament has formally called on Azerbaijan to stop the demolition as a breach of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
You are living in a dream…
Turks will never return… they will destroy more by their axes…
They have no respect to human rights
How can they respect religion
They don’t recognize Kurds who are Sunni Muslim like them…
They have Culture and Language…Existed before them…
How they recognize our Churches…And return them
Don’t dream
Unless their own God arrives and order them to return…
Will they obey to their God
Might not as well…
They will punish even their god
To lie once again and say their God has Armenian blood
Did you forget Akhtamar
Still the Holly Cross has no Cross on the dome
Pray for few honest people they kept it in 1951…
[Yaser Kamal ( Auther)
Avni Basman (Turkish education minister in 1951),
Zakarya Mildanoğlu
Now Repaired as a museum…No one should pray there…
Our God is old their God is young… He still can fight
and can keep the cross out of their door…
—————
Vandalism of Holly Cross Church in 1951
After the Armenian Genocide, the church has been exposed to extensive vandalism. Before the restoration of the church, the reliefs on the church wall used as a poligon. Zakarya Mildanoğlu, an architect who was involved in the restoration process of the church, explains the situation during an interview with Hrant Dink# as “The facade of the church is full of bullet holes. Some of them are so big that, they cannot be covered during the renovation process. During many conferences related to the restoration of the Akhtamar church, the process of covering the bullet holes are identified as the hardest part of the restoration by academicians and architects. Most of the Armenian churches and gravestones have been exposed to vandalism as a part of the Turkish government policy which aims to destroy the Armenian heritage in Anatolia.
During 1951, Turkish government took a decision to destroy the church with
Sledge hammers. Yasar Kemal a very famous Turkish writer, managed to stop the destruction of the church. He explains the situation to Alain Bosquet as “I was in a ship from Tatvan to Van. I met with a military officer Dr. Cavit Bey onboard. I told him in this city there is a church descended from Armenians. It is a masterpiece.
These days, they are demolishing this church. I will take you there tomorrow.
This church is a monument of Anatolia. Can you help me to stop the destruction?
Other day we went there with the military officer. They have already demolished
the small chapel next to the church. The military officer became angry and told the workers that; I am ordering you to stop working. I will meet with governor.
There will be no movement until I return to the island again. The workers immediately stopped the demolition. We arrived to Van city center. I contacted with the newspaper Cumhuriyet. They informed the ministry of education about the demolition. Two days later, Minister Avni Başman telegraphed the Van governor and ordered to stop the demolition permanently on June 25, 1951, the day when the order came is the liberation
day of the church.” (Wikipedia, 2011)
Khachkars: Armenian carved cross-stone appeared since 6th century, is a cross-bearing carved memorial stele covered with rosettes and botanical motifs. The largest collection in the world (more than ten thousand thombstones) was formerly located in a medieval cemetery in Julfa, Nakhichevan (historically an Armenian land) until it was destroyed recently (during 2005) by Azerbaijan government. The European Parliament has formally called on Azerbaijan to stop the demolition as a breach of the UNESCO World Heritage Convention.