Religious freedom in Turkey

"Turkey's Unique Brand of Secularism Means Firm Government Control of Religions," the Catholic News Service reports.  Here is a bit:

One of the most difficult issues Christians, Jews and other religious minorities are facing is their lack of recognition under Turkish law, particularly as it applies to their ability to acquire and own property for churches or synagogues, schools and hospitals, he said.

Running seminaries is evening more difficult, Oehring said.

"In 1971, the government decided there would be no more private religious schools offering higher education," so the Greek and Armenian Orthodox seminaries were closed, he said. The Jewish community already was sending its rabbinical students abroad, and the Latin-rite Catholic seminary remained open since it was housed in the compound of the French consulate in Istanbul.

"The Muslim schools had already been closed in 1924 and were reopened as government-run high schools or faculties of divinity in Turkish universities," so the state controlled what the students learned, he said.

While many people recognize the continued closure of the seminaries as a problem, he said, "the Kemalists and secularists say if you give Christians the possibility of opening schools, Islamic schools not under state control also would have a right to open."