While Erdoğan seizes churches, Cameron fights for Turkey to join the EU

Apr 25, 2016 by

By Archbishop Cranmer:

David Cameron has pledged to fight for Turkey to be admitted to the European Union. This, he avers, would place them at “the top table of European politics”, where, he says, they deserve to be. But there are a couple of problems with this. Or possibly three. Or even four.

Firstly, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is currently busy seizing churches and land belonging to Armenian, Syriac, Chaldean and Protestant Christian communities. The ruling Justice and Development Party is zealously meting out ‘justice’ to Christians and pursuing ethnic and religious ‘development’ along traditional lines. “The government didn’t take over these pieces of property in order to protect them. They did so to acquire them,” Pastor Ahmet Guvener of Diyarbakir Protestant Church told the World Watch Monitor. The ‘nationalised’ churches now under Turkish state control are listed as: the Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, the Surp (Armenian for ‘Saint’) Sarkis Chaldean Catholic Church, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church, the Apostolic Armenian Surp Giragos Church, an Armenian Catholic church, and the Mar Petyun Chaldean Catholic Church. Turkey regularly features in the Open Doors ‘World Watch Map‘ of Christian persecution, and is currently ranked No.45 in the world (but still in receipt of £9million of UK aid).

While executing this progrom, President Erdoğan cloaks himself in immunity from all criticism. Insulting the president is a crime in Turkey punishable by up to four years in jail, but the consequences of being even a bit rude about him appear to extend to the EU. Chancellor Merkel has acceded to a request from Erdoğan to prosecute German comedian Jan Böhmermann for reciting a ‘poem’ (scarcely) entitled ‘Slanderous Criticism‘. And now Dutch journalist Ebru Umar has been prevented from leaving the country after tweeting something critical of the Turkish President. Imagine Turkey within the EU, when this blog post might fall within the purview of the European Arrest Warrant, and application is made to seek out His Grace’s ashes and extradite them to rot in Sağmalcılar Prison (or perhaps not there: it’s now a posh hotel) along with the ghost of Billy Hayes and any journalists, artists or intellectual dissidents who fall out of favour with the King of the Turks. By way of challenge, the Spectator has launched ‘The President Erdogan Offensive Poetry Competition’ (£1000 prize to be won). Send your entries HERE.

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