Turkey’s government continues its systematic policy of plundering the properties of Greek Orthodox religious foundations and interfering in their organizations. Two cases currently pending before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) are glaring illustrations of these practices.
In one case, the plaintiffs are two foundations of the Greek Orthodox community established in 1834. The foundations seek restitution for certain immovable properties that belonged to them. These properties were listed in their 1936 declaration and if they cannot be returned, the foundations are alternatively seeking compensation corresponding to their value. However, the Directorate General of Foundations, a Turkish public institution under the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, refuses to comply.
Those two foundations are not the only Christian properties seized by the Turkish government. Thousands of Christian properties have been confiscated throughout the past decades and transferred to either the Public Treasury or the General Directorate of Foundations.
When the Turkish government refuses to recognize a Christian foundation’s ownership of a property, their assets are often formally transferred to the state or other public institutions. The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) said in a comment:
Even worse, these properties can de facto be seized by various mafia-linked enterprises, particularly in the parking and real estate sectors, seeking easy profits.
The Greek Orthodox Church in Constantinople is subject to severe discrimination and administrative restrictions. The closure of Halki Seminary, the main Orthodox Christian theological school, in 1971 continues to prevent the training of new priests in Turkey.
Meanwhile, a separate case involving violations by Turkey of the human rights of two Greek Orthodox Christian priests, Niko Mavrakis and Corç Kasapoğlu, is currently before the ECHR.
The ECLJ reported in November:
In Turkey, unlike their Muslim counterparts, Christian clergymen are not permitted to manage their religious foundations.
By barring these priests from participating in the management of their own community’s religious institutions, Turkey is effectively infringing upon their right to freely organize—a restriction that is neither grounded in law nor justified.
The Mavrakis case… is just one example of the latent persecution suffered by Christians in Turkey, victims of an ethnic-religious nationalism promoting the homogeneity of a Turkish-Muslim nation.”
Turkey’s current population is about 80 million, but Christians today only make up around 0.1 % of it. Yet, many cities and towns in modern-day Turkey were established or enriched by Greeks, including Constantinople—modern-day Istanbul. Even the names of the region come from the Greek language such as “Anatolia” (from the Greek “east” or “sunrise”), or even “Istanbul” (from the Greek “into the city”).
Anatolia/Asia Minor (today’s Turkey) was the heartland of the Byzantine Empire, the eastern half of the Roman Empire, which survived for a thousand years after the western half crumbled into various feudal kingdoms.
Built in the seventh century BC, Byzantium was a valuable city for both the Greeks and Romans. Reestablished by Emperor Constantine as the “new Rome” in 330 as the new capital of the Empire, the city was named Constantinople in his honor.
Ottoman Turks invaded and captured the city in 1453, bringing an end to the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire. Christians and Jews became dhimmis, second-class subjects who had to pay high jizya taxes to be able to stay alive as non-Muslims. Many converted to Islam throughout the centuries to avoid pressure, discrimination, and persecution.
The centuries-long Christian persecution in the Ottoman Empire peaked during the Greek Genocide. This involved the systematic extermination of the native Greek subjects of the Ottoman Empire before, during, and after World War I (1914-1923). It is likely that the victim toll of the Greek Genocide was somewhere in the vicinity of 1–1.5 million. Armenians and Assyrians were also targeted and largely exterminated during the same genocide.
Persecution against Greeks and other non-Muslims, however, did not end with the genocide. From 1941 to 1942, Turkey enlisted all Christian and Jewish males in the military, including the elderly and mentally ill. They were forced to work under horrendous conditions in labor battalions. In 1942, a wealth tax was imposed to eliminate Christians and Jews from the economy. In 1955, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews were targeted by a pogrom in Istanbul. In 1964, the remaining Greeks were forcefully expelled from Turkey. All of these events contributed to the ethnic cleansing of Christians and Jews from Turkey. Whereas Greek Orthodox Christians in Turkey accounted for approximately 100,000 citizens in 1923, they are now around 1,200.
Christianity, however, has a long history in Asia Minor and was once the majority religion of the land. During much of the first century, it was the central land of the early church. Back when the population mostly consisted of Greeks, Asia Minor was home to the seven churches of the Book of Revelation and seven ecumenical councils. Much of the New Testament was written either to, or from, the churches in Asia Minor. Many saints were born there and the three major apostles—St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John—either ministered or lived there.
Constantinople and Antioch (Antakya) were two of the five ancient cities of the Pentarchy. Antioch is where the followers of Jesus were for the first time in history called “Christians” and the site of one of the earliest churches established by St. Peter.
The Turkish-Islamic presence in the region began only in the 11th century. Originally from Central Asia, Turks arrived in Asia Minor, which was then within the borders of the Byzantine/Eastern Roman Empire and ruled by indigenous Greeks, in the eleventh century and started conquering the land. Many Turkish citizens today have non-Turkic ethnic roots and are descendants of those Greeks who were forcibly converted to Islam.
Centuries later, persecution against Christians in Turkey remains ongoing. As the ECLJ notes:
Although the Turkish Constitution officially recognizes Turkey as a secular state, in practice non-Muslims are treated by the administration as second-class citizens, through various forms of discrimination.
Meanwhile, Archbishop Elpidophoros of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America compared U.S. President Donald Trump to Constantine the Great. Elpidophoros spoke next to the president at the White House to commemorate Greek Independence Day, also known as the Celebration of the Greek Revolution, on March 24th. The event celebrates the beginning of the Greek Revolution in 1821, which ultimately led to Greece’s independence from the Ottoman Empire after nearly 400 years of occupation. Elpidophoros said:
Through your leadership, you embody the values of our Christian faith and a love for the Gospel. You remind me of the great Roman Emperor Constantine the Great, who founded and built the magnificent city of Constantinople—my birthplace, known today as Istanbul.
One hopes that the U.S. administration will help the Greeks of Constantinople—the people who built the city—not only survive but thrive on their ancient land.
