Turkish Prime Minister Promises Equal Rights For Christians Erdogan Visits Germany: More Freedom for Religious Minorities

Berlin, September 5 (idea) – The Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayip Erdogan has promised to grant equal religious rights to the Christian minority in his country. During a visit to Germany, Erdogan met with representatives from churches and human rights organizations in Berlin, September 3.

One of the participants of the meeting was Rev. Christian Duncker, who used to be in charge of the German speaking Protestant church in Istanbul from 1993 – 2002. He knows Erdogan personally, from the politician’s time as mayor of Istanbul.

As Duncker told the evangelical news agency idea, the Prime Minister promised to make every effort to grant Christians the same religious rights as Muslims. According to Duncker their most urgent need is to secure equal judicial status in order to be able to buy, build or renovate churches. So far they were not even allowed to open a bank account.

Christians also needed theological training facilities. There is a growing shortage of clergy as the last seminaries were closed in 1971. In Duncker’s opinion Christianity in Turkey is in danger of extinction.

Turkey has 66 million citizens, among them 110,000 mostly orthodox Christians. The small and young evangelical churches have often faced discrimination. About two million Turks live and work in Germany. Erdogan is trying to win the German government’s support for his efforts to join the European Union.

While Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is willing to back the application, the Christian Democratic opposition and human rights groups believe that Turkey’ s poor human rights record does not allow the country to join “Europe”.

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Evangelical news agency idea. Wolfgang Polzer Tel: +49-6441-915102, Fax: +49-6441-915118 e-mail: – Internet: http://www.idea.de Postal address: idea, PO Box 1820, 35528 Wetzlar, Germany

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