In the last few days, two deeply troubling court decisions brought to light Turkey’s double standards in respecting freedom of expression and religion. While historic churches risk being converted to mosques in Turkey, world class concert pianist Fazil Say has been given jail time for insulting Muslims. Something seems to have gone terribly wrong in how the Turkish nation develops its sensitivity to freedom and democracy.
Following the first court decision, made in Trabzon on April 11, all historic churches and synagogues could risk being converted into mosques. The sad story is this: Responding to the application of the General Directorate of Pious Foundations, the government body responsible for most of the country’s historic mosques and relics, a Turkish judge decided that Turkey’s Ministry of Culture and Tourism has been in a position of an “illegal occupier” for the past 50 years in maintaining the 13th century Church of Hagia Sophia in Trabzon, a city on the Black Sea, as a museum.
