NO. 48

WASHINGTON, DC — The American Hellenic Institute (AHI) issued the following statement on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) 2020 Annual Report on Turkey:

The American Hellenic Institute welcomes the USCIRF 2020 Annual Report on Turkey. The report notes Turkey's failure to maintain an atmosphere of religious freedom and specifically cites Turkey’s violation of the rights of religious minorities of the “Armenian, Assyrian, and Greek” communities. It criticized the Turkish government's mistreatment of Orthodox Christians, including the government’s ongoing closure of the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary. The report also references Turkey's efforts to convert Orthodox churches into mosques, such as the St. Chora Church in Istanbul, a move that AHI publicly opposes.

In the report, USCIRF recommended Turkey for the U.S. Department of State’s “Special Watch List” designation for “engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).” The series of recommendations USCIRF presents to the U.S. government also includes for it to raise issues such as the continued closure of the Halki Seminary in all meetings with Turkish government officials.

AHI welcomes the USCIRF’s critique of Turkey’s treatment of religious minorities in its annual report and calls for the U.S. government to implement the USCIRF’s recommendations. AHI has long maintained Turkey stands in violation of IRFA and further agrees with USCIRF’s assessment that Turkey, too, engages in, or tolerates severe violations of religious freedom pursuant to IFRA. AHI calls for the United States to hold Turkey accountable under IFRA, which obligates the President of the United States to take one or more of 15 enumerated actions toward a country that violates the Act.

However, AHI believes that the USCIRF should have recommended Turkey for a “Country of Particular Concern” designation given Turkey’s longstanding history of suppressing religious freedom of minorities, which has been well-documented for decades; the lack of any real progress by Turkey to address and improve its record on religious freedom, and Turkey’s failure to adhere to European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) rulings.

AHI proudly has been at the forefront of promoting religious freedom and human rights of the Ecumenical Patriarch in Turkey to policymakers, including in 1994, when AHI was one of the first Greek American organizations to raise such issues with the White House.