Assyrian Monastery in Turkey Threatened

By Dikran Ego


Berlin – acsatv — The harassment and intimidation against the Mar Gabriel Monastery continue and have taken a new impetus. Now the monastery staff is threatened openly in Turkey’s largest newspaper: “If the problem is not resolved, blood will be shed here” writes the newspaper Hürriyet.

On Friday, February 20th, an interview was published in the paper version of Turkey’s largest newspaper Hürriyet. The interview was done with Kuryakos Ergün, who is chairman of the Mar Gabriel Monastery Foundation and Suleyman Düz, who is the village chief in the village of Eglence.

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“We have inherited the land from our ancestors, we will not give it to anyone, if the court does not resolve the issue, there will be killings, there will be great events taking place here, we have lived together here in a thousand years but now they are entrusting themselves with Europe,” says Suleyman Düz, village chief in Eglence, referring to the few Assyrians who remain in the area.

The Foundation’s chairman of Mar Gabriel Monastery, Kuryakos Ergün, says that the problem must be solved at the local level.

“We want to live like brothers with the Muslims here, the monastery has a long history which has been preserved for thousands of years, it’s an unnecessary provocation, we want to solve the problem here in Midyat, in Ankara, not in Europe,” says Kuraykos Ergun.

Before the eyes of the Turkish authorities and the police, now open threats have been made several times against the Mor Gabriel Monastery. So far, none of the threats has caused any legal implications.

Click here to read original article (Turkish)