Turkey must protect the monastery of Mor Gabriel: this is the appeal made by all parties in the Bundestag, the German Federal Parliament, which last night discussed an appeal to such effect. In addition, the groups highlighted the pressure placed on Christians. “The monastery is the symbol of Turkey’s approach to the Christian institutions and the religious minorities”, stated Erika Steinbach (Cdu), spokesperson of the Union’s group for Human Rights. The appeal asks the Federal Government to work with the support of the EU partners “to make the Turkish government protect the monastery in the long run” and let “non-Muslim religious minorities have a legal status and be entitled to assert their rights, with no restrictions”. “Despite few and minor progress”, the text reads, “religious freedom in Turkey is still widely restricted”. From the opposition benches, the spokesperson of the Environmentalist party for religious issues, Josef Wrinkler, also censored the Turkish situation, speaking of the monastery as of the “tip of the iceberg”: “An almost biblical exodus is taking place for the Christian minority of Turkey”, and “lots of monasteries have been expropriated”.

27/04/2012 -