Turkey Overturns Historic Religious Property Seizures

Amplify’d from www.irfwp.org

This marks probably the most important recent development in religion, and in "church-state" relations in the world at present.

ISTANBUL, August 30 (Compass Direct News) - The Turkish government made a historic U-turn in state policy this past weekend, issuing an official decree inviting Turkey's Christian and Jewish communities to reclaim their long-confiscated religious properties.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the surprise decision on Sunday evening (Aug. 28) in Istanbul, addressing a large gathering of Istanbul's non-Muslim religious leaders representing 161 minority foundations. Invited as the honored guest for an iftar (breaking the fast) meal near the end of the Muslim month of Ramadan, Erdogan declared, "The times when citizens in our country were oppressed for their beliefs, their ethnic heritage or the way they dressed is over."

Acknowledging past injustices inflicted on those of different faith groups, he vowed, "Those days are over. In our country, no citizen is superior to another."

In a deliberate clarification the next day, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu emphasized that the government's formal decision was "not a gesture toward minorities, but the return of the rights of legally equal citizens." Read more at www.irfwp.org

 

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