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Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican claims that freedom of religion is protected in Turkish law

Nov 3, 2019 9:00 am By Christine Douglass-Williams

Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican, Lutfullah Goktas, has stated deceptively that “freedom of religion is protected under the Turkish constitution,” and that “Turkey has made significant progress regarding freedom of religion in its territory, such as restoring churches and synagogues.”

Goktas was speaking at an event in Naples entitled “1929-2019: Ninety years of relations between state and religious groups.” Yet normative Islam does not recognize (let alone respect) any other religion but Islam, and to leave Islam renders one an apostate, worthy of death.

The truth is that Turkey does not recognize the freedom of religion, as Goktas claims. The country’s governing party frames Christians as a “threat to the stability of the nation,” and Turkish Christian citizens are regarded as Western collaborators, instead of as real Turks. Since 2016, Turkey has “stepped up its war on Christianity by seizing all the churches in one city and declaring them state property.” And not just one denomination has been targeted by the Turkish leadership: “included in the seizures are Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox churches, one of which is over 1,700 years old.” Turkey also continues to deny the Armenian genocide, and to add insult to injury, the Turkish government has also seized Armenian churches and land.

In even more deception, “Goktas said Turkey was an important country for the Vatican in the sense of ensuring its communication with Catholics.” But as reported by the Catholic Herald:

Turkish Christians suffer endless petty and not so petty discrimination at the hands of the state, and Christians in Turkey are also subject to random acts of violence for the simple offence of being Christian.

What is sad is that the Turkish government does not seem to think that this a problem. There are very few Christians left in Turkey; soon there may be none at all. What does that tell you about the Turkish nation

The biggest problem is that the Vatican is not taking Christian persecution seriously enough in Turkey and elsewhere. Instead, the Pope has been bending over backwards to embrace Islamic supremacists everywhere, declaring Islam to be a religion of peace, and conjuring up ways for the flock to follow his example.

“Freedom of religion protected by law in Turkey: envoy,” Yeni Safak, November 1, 2019:

Freedom of religion is protected under the Turkish constitution, Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican said Thursday.

Lutfullah Goktas was speaking at a session on ‘The role of ambassadors in relations with the Vatican’ as part of an international symposium held at Napoli Federico II University in Naples titled ‘1929-2019: Ninety years of relations between state and religious groups.’

It was held on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Lateran Pacts between Italy and the Papacy.

Goktas said Turkey is a secular country and an overwhelming majority of its people are Muslims.

“Relations between the Papacy [Vatican] date back to the Ottoman [Empire] era. The establishment of diplomatic ties between Turkey and the Vatican, however, occurred in 1960 amid the reign of Pope John XXIII. We look forward to strengthening our relations further based on the principle of respecting differences.”

Since the early 2000s, according to Goktas, Turkey has made significant progress regarding freedom of religion in its territory, such as restoring churches and synagogues, resolving matters of immovable properties and registering legal entities.

“Based on the understanding of equal citizenship, our state is sensitive to the problems of members of other religions,” he said.

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Filed Under: Catholic Church, Muslim persecution of Christians, Turkey, Vatican City Tagged With: 1929-2019: Ninety years of relations between state and religious groups.’, Lutfullah Goktas, Naples, Napoli Federico II University


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Comments

  1. FYI says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 9:20 am

    The Vatican these days is a key POLITICAL center:promoter of Globalism and defender of islam{frankie is islam’s best buddy and the prophet of the Globalist Agenda,even telling folks they should obey the UN masters!}

    islam’s prophet muhammed would feel so at home in the Vatican these days{we know he was a pedophile too;good place to hide out the Vatican isn’t it?}especially given that his co-religionist francis is busy promoting islam,telling us that ” authentic islam and a proper reading of the koran is opposed to every form of violence”,elevating his pro-islam YES men to senior office,clamping down on any criticism of islam[and that’s besides his day job of undermining Catholicism via heresy and apostasy as the devout Catholics of my family tell me,scattering the flock,covering up clerical abuse{mc carrick case},promoting Globalism,blessing pagan statues which are then put in churches..so Busy is francis,the Man in White,reconstructing the catholic church in his own image and that of his morally bankrupt henchmen}

    Why should anybody believe the Turkish ambassador or anything coming from Mr Bergoglio’s Rome,a den of fraudulent piety and lies?

    • Rufolino says

      Nov 4, 2019 at 12:25 pm

      Thank you for speaking your mind about the Papacy and the Vatican, both of which these days are becoming nothing less than an outrage to Christians suffering persecution for their faith.

  2. Infidel says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 9:33 am

    Historically, the Turks – talking about all Turkic people here from Kazakhstan and Pakistan to Turkey – were the biggest Islamizing forces ever – even more than the Arabs. It’s almost like Islam was a Turkic, rather than an Arab invention.

    The idea that any Turkic entity proud of that heritage would value, much less protect, freedom of religion is a big joke

    • Lotus says

      Nov 3, 2019 at 1:39 pm

      That’s right. After the initial Arab invasions petered out, it was the Turks who picked up the baton and became the most fanatical proponents of Islam.

  3. somehistory says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 10:11 am

    First, claiming doesn’t make it true.
    Second, the pope and his cohorts will believe all things claimed about islam by moslims, no matter how large the lie.
    Third, islam teaches that there is only one “religion” and islam is it. No other belief is given the status of “religion” by moslims.
    Fourth, moslims are free to practice islam in turkey, but are the only group having such freedom.
    Fifth, the “vatican” should ask the turkey guy what about those schools and churches that were attacked by the government of turkey just a short time ago.

    It’s ‘moslim-speak’ all the way, using words the rest of us use, but using those words to mean something different than their ‘universal’ meanings.

    • GreekEmpress says

      Nov 3, 2019 at 5:59 pm

      +1
      How can he possibly believe this envoy??? There’s another thread on JW today that reported on Erdogan’s latest speech at the mosque—blasting us infidels. We are the enemy!

      As someone said here on JW, the pope is supposed to be feeding the lambs—not feeding the lambs to the wolves.

      Between the pope, Erdogan, and Omar these days,
      I could really go off on an unintelligible diatribe, but I’ll restrain myself.

  4. mortimer says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 10:32 am

    BREAKING NEWS ! HEADLINE:

    ‘POPE PURCHASES BROOKLYN BRIDGE FROM TURKISH GOVERNMENT.’

  5. Jay says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 11:28 am

    Pope Francis is a one world order, open borders hypocrite! He is a wolf in sheep’s clothing!
    I find him disgraceful on many levels. As a lifelong practicing Catholic, I have no respect for this pope and have not given to the Catholic Church since he became pope! I cannot support his communist views and his hypocrisy! He showed up out of nowhere and Pope Benedict suddenly retires! Very suspicious!
    Hopefully his Karma will be his demise and ultimately God his final judge!

  6. cory says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 1:15 pm

    Yes, look how free the Armenians were to pursue their religious belieft. More taquiyya.

  7. Wellington says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 1:29 pm

    Pure deception which easily translates to pure Islam.

  8. underbed cat says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 2:15 pm

    Agree Wellington,Islamic Republic of Turkey…..is a member of the Organization of Islamic Conference or Cooperation…..along with 56 Islamic ruled countries in the United Nations…..which will always claim tolerance, but cannot be in under laws of Islam….so it is pure deception, is pure Islam and awareness of it’s doctrine keeps the one on its toes to be aware of it’s cleverness, they know that many never understood the doctrine or nuetral language, but those days are over unless the country goes for hate speech laws. First fooled religious leaders, except previous Pope and government officials, paid media althought they are putting up those annoying twisters of soooo sincere false facts wally style, but that is changing. The wizards curtain has risen. Oh my!

  9. CogitoErgoSum says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 3:46 pm

    From Article 24 of the Constitution of Turkey:

    “Religious and moral education and instruction shall be conducted under state
    supervision and control.”

    Yeah, free as a dhimmi.

  10. Angemon says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 5:56 pm

    Freedom of religion is protected under the Turkish constitution, Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican said Thursday.

    I suspect that, had he stated otherwise, the Pope would find a way of saying what amounts to “oh, he doesn’t really mean that”…

  11. gravenimage says

    Nov 3, 2019 at 10:36 pm

    Turkey’s ambassador to the Vatican claims that freedom of religion is protected in Turkish law

    Goktas was speaking at an event in Naples entitled “1929-2019: Ninety years of relations between state and religious groups.”
    …………………

    Why “ninety years”, rather than 100? Well, then they might have to include the final years of the horrifying Armenian Genocide, including the destruction of Smyrna–then Turkey’s greatest and most cosmopolitan city–in 1922.

    Of course, this is bs anyway. Non-Muslim–those few who survived the Genocide–have been oppressed and persecuted, and subject to several pogroms, most notably the terrible state-run Istanbul Pogrom of 1955, which largely targeted Greek Christians.

  12. jca reid says

    Nov 4, 2019 at 6:59 am

    Bullsh*t! Simply towing the standard line of lying & deceit. He knows what will happen to him & his family if he dare strays from the Mohammedan Propaganda & tells the Truth.

  13. gravenimage says

    Nov 4, 2019 at 11:02 pm

    How does this jibe with this other story from the same day?

    “Erdogan Extols Koranic Harshness Toward Non-Muslims, Seeks Their Koranic Conquest”

    https://www.jihadwatch.org/2019/11/erdogan-extols-koranic-harshness-toward-non-muslims-seeks-their-koranic-conquest

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