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But some 200,000 Turkish soldiers still patrol the region, with all the main roads dotted by recurring roadblocks. Village guards armed and hired by the state in effect control the villages and towns, some of them occupying lands occupied since the 5th century by Assyrian Christians.

In a June 15 opinion piece in the Turkish Daily News, columnist Mehmet Ali Birand complained about "hard-nosed" decision-makers in the government who "brazenly rough up the minorities" for so-called "security" reasons.

"They do not accept that there could be Syriacs [Assyrians], Kurds, Greeks or Armenians living in Turkey that have exactly the same rights as anyone known as a Turkish citizen," Birand declared. The columnist said he was referring not to measures curbing terrorism, but to "the general treatment meted out to anyone not of Turkish origin."

"We should know that as long as we cannot escape seeing minorities as the enemies of the Turkish state, we will not be able either to leave them in peace, or ourselves. It is not laws, but heads that should be changed," Birand concluded.

Copyright © 2001 Compass Direct. Used with permission.

The Turkish Daily News is online with Mehmet Ali Birand's June 15 editorial.

For more articles, see Yahoo's full coverage on Turkey.

Previous coverage in Christianity Today of religious persecution in Turkey includes:

Turkey Releases Jailed Christians After 30 Days | Witnesses admit gendarmarie pressured them to sign complaints. (April 10, 2000)

Two Turkish Christians Jailed | Judge refuses bail during 'religious slander' investigation (March 13, 2000)

70 Christians Arrested While at Church | Police detain service attendees claiming a "complaint" had been filed against the church. (Nov. 15, 1999)

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July (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45