91998E2158

WRITTEN QUESTION E-2158/98

by Katerina Daskalaki (UPE) to the Council

(14 July 1998)

Subject: Danger facing the oldest monastery in the world situated in Turkey

The Mar Gabriel Syrian Orthodox monastery, the oldest monastery in the world, is situated in an area of southern Turkey affected by the Kurdish conflict. The local authorities are preventing the training of novices at Mar Gabriel and refusing to allow any conservation work to be carried out, with the result that the historic monastery, which is already suffering from neglect, is falling into a state of total disrepair.

Can the Council make representations to the Turkish authorities with a view to ending the deterioration of this sixteen-hundred-year-old Christian monastery and the infringements of the rights of the very few monks remaining there?

Reply

(9 November 1998)

The Council regrets the developments concerning the Mar Gabriel monastery. For its part, the Austrian Presidency raised this matter at one of its recent bilateral meetings with Turkish officials and intends to bring up the subject of Christian minorities in Turkey again at future meetings.

The Council is well aware that under the Treaty of Lausanne, signed in July 1923, the Turkish Government undertook to grant full protection to churches, synagogues, cemeteries and other religious establishments of non-Muslim minorities.

In this context, the Council would stress that the promotion of human rights, and religious freedom in particular, is a fundamental aim of the European Union in its relations with Turkey. It regrets that Turkey currently refuses to continue its political dialogue with the EU in this area.