Even ‘Recognized’ Minorities Such As Armenians Have No Legal Status in Turkey: Today’s Zaman Columnist

In spite of many positive changes, I do not think that we have gotten an irreversible and radical change in Turkey’s minority policies, writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz in his regular column in Today’s Zaman.

“This government, for example, has not taken any steps to acknowledge the Armenian and other tragedies that non-Muslims endured in this country. Despite a few courageous statements by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, we have not witnessed a radical shift in Turkey’s official policy of denial concerning the past atrocities,” he says, adding that acknowledging “past atrocities and confronting history” are necessary conditions for creating a change in Turkey — not only for minorities for the entire political environment.

“Non-recognition and failure to give ‘legally binding rights’ to minorities, which were at the center of the Ittihadist policies of Turkey, has not changed yet. In spite of the clear reference to non-Muslims in the Treaty of Lausanne, Turkey officially only recognized Greek, Jewish and Armenian congregations as ‘minorities.’ Other religious minorities do not exist in the legal system. But do not get the wrong impression concerning the ‘recognized’ minorities. They do not have any legal status at all. There is no law either regulating their affairs or recognizing their institutions.

“Instead of creating new legal devices to recognize minorities’ religious institutions, the government is just trying to solve some problems with de facto measures.

“Government interference in patriarchate elections continue and the Armenian community has been suffering from a great crisis as a result of these unjustified interventions,” concludes Cengiz, noting that he will continue the topic in his Friday column.