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FAITH TOURISM DAYS 25-27 OCTOBER 2002, KUŞADASI / TURKEY
The Book of the FAITH TOURISM DAYS is composed of the papers and speeches of the symposium organised by TÜRSAB and the
Presidency of Religious Affairs in Kuşadası on 25 - 27 October 2002.
CONTENTS
After "The Faith Tourism Days"...... "The Faith Tourism Days" were organised between 25 – 27 October 2002 in Kuşadası by the Association of Turkish Travel Agencies and the Presidency of Religious Affairs. The speeches delivered by our distinguished speakers related to the history of the religions within the context of the faith tourism in a sincere atmosphere made our symposium very significant. I would like to thank again our distinguished guests who honoured "The Faith Tourism Days" and brought their notable contribution. The significance of the values of Anatolia from the point of the system of faiths and their importance from the point of the faith tourism have been the focus point of this atmosphere of dialogue. The most important notion of this topic was that the three celestial religions cohabit on these lands through the tradition of respect and understanding for the freedom of faith and worship since centuries. The tolerance and understanding dominating Anatolia echoed in the philosophies, the poetic calls and the interpretations of Mevlana, Hacıbektaş, Yunus Emre and many other religious leaders even in the 13th century when the world witnessed the dark days of the Middle Age. This atmosphere of tolerance offered the opportunity to the Jewish people escaping from the torture in 1492 to set up a new life on these lands, to build their synagogues and to live freely their faith. This tradition of respect and understanding for the freedom of faith and worship existing since centuries continues today under the guarantee of the Turkish Republic Constitution in secular, democratic and contemporary Turkey. We call the world humanity to see this extraordinary rich heritage, these significant values and we believe that this fact will contribute to the improvement of the mutual understanding. Best Regards...
I Başaran Ulusoy The President of the Board of Directors of TÜRSAB "The freedom of faith is guaranteed by the Constitution" His Excellency the Minister, His Excellency the Governor, His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs, dear guests, dear representatives of the media.... Welcome to our symposium.... I believe that this symposium organised under the heading of "The Faith Tourism Days" has a special meaning. There is a meaningful expression in the Turkish culture; "The guest of God..." We have been grown in a milieu where the strangers were welcome and our meals were shared with them.... And the Anatolia hosted different civilisations, different faiths since thousands of years. This tolerance has been the basis of the philosophy of Mevlana and propagated to the world from these lands. The calls for prayers from minarets and the bells ringings follow each other since thousands of years and call for the worshippers..... On these lands, both the faith and the worship are free... And we are gathered in this hall due to this tolerance, this cultural heritage... We know that people struggled in the history on behalf of the religions and people suffered. However, the religions advise tolerance, goodness, love and peace. 500 years ago, The Chief Rabbinate of Edirne İzak Serfati had written the following to the Jewish community in Germany from Edirne, one of the capitals of the Ottoman Empire, very close to the Selimiye Mosque which is a world famous piece of art of Mimar Sinan: "If you listen to me, the way going to Turkey is the way going to the life... Hurry up and come to this tranquil country. Here everyone lives peacefully and happily under the shadow of the vines and the fig trees...." The tolerance and the open-mindedness of Sultan Beyazıt II have been originated in fact from the traditional values and understanding whose roots have been in the old times. While the world was undergoing dark epochs and people were tortured because of their faith, a poetic call was echoed from Anatolia full of love and tolerance:
Come, come again/Whoever, whatever you may be Heathen, idolatrous or fire worshipper Our door is not the door of despair Even if you take your oaths a hudred time, come like you are This call which is still unfortunately not perceived by many people even in our contemporary world sharing the universal values of the democracy was heard from the great religious man, the great philosopher Hz.Mevlana Celaleddin-i Rumi.... It was echoed separately in each voice of many religious men, philosophers and others in Anatolia which has been the virtue of love, tolerance and affection. In the voices of Hacı Bektaş Veli, Yunus Emre and many other important philosophers and important men... Today, our modern, democratic, secular Turkish Republic sharing the universal values continues the tradition of respect to the freedom of faith and worship existing for hundreds of years under the guarantee of the Constitution. I believe that countires which don’t have culture don’t have also the history.... The significance of a country is not evaluated by the geography but by the historical values... For this reason, we are living in a very lucky country... The real owners of Turkey are those who know to take advantage of these values.... The faith feeds our intelligence as much as our soul... We will live in peace and tolerance together in the future as in the past by using our intelligence and taking care of our values... The biggest heritage that these lands left to us is this tolerance... I repeat my happiness for having organised such a meeting and I say welcome to all of you... Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz The President of Religious Affairs "Turkey is located where the West and the East greet each other." Bismillahirrahmanirrahim. His Excellency the Minister, His Excellency the Governor, His Excellency the District Governor, His Excellency the Armenian Patriarch, dear religious leaders, dear guests, dear representatives of our press and televisions...Anatolia hosted many civilisations in different periods of the history of the humanity. In the mosques, churches and synagogues existing side by side on these lands since centuries, members of different religions pray freely in this peaceful religious atmosphere. I hope the Faith Tourism Days Symposium organised in this beautiful place of Kuşadası of our country possessing various kinds of properties will be successful. I congratulate first my dear friend Başaran Ulusoy, the President of TÜRSAB as well as the members of the board of directors and everyone who contributed to this organisation. The technological developments and changes on the world give the possibility to human beings to be acquainted with different societies and countries, to establish close relationships with them, to see the natural beauties and to visit the holy places. Our country possessing many synagogues, churches and mosques besides many temples cults creating a very dense spiritual atmosphere is the intersection point of the civilisations due to its geographical location. It’s also frequented by the religions and it provides a key point where people of different religions live together and the West and the East welcome each other from past to the present, the cultural richness and various faiths exist. The faith tourism is one of the most important organisations contributing to the feelings and thoughts such as tolerance, dilaogue and peace. One of the aims of the faith tourism which is the mother of the tourism is to soften, to decrease the differences among socities and to act as a catalysis among cultures. We need more coordination among religions in our globalised world. The most important common point of this century and the next centuries will be the acquaintance of the members of different religions with each other, to exchange informations, to realise common organisations and to continue to live in peace. The formule of "living together in the multiplicity" which the Islamc religion tries to establish since fifteen centuries is seen as the way leading in the same parallel to the peaceful atmosphere to be realised by the coexistence of various cultures for the peace on the world. Our religion advises to his members to support organisations for people embracing without prejudice the coordination among religions, the spiritual values and going to the geography of the religions for seeing the historiacl values belonging to the faiths. Our religious book the Koran orders us to help each other for beneficial works and not to support the malice and the hostility. The Muslims obeying this order for centuries are making big efforts in order to create the culture of tolerance, peace, understanding and consensus based on the criteria of security, confidence and sincerity. The most important witness of this fact is Anatolia which is the cradle of our history and civilisation. Our dear guests, Anatolia is a big potential for the faith tourism. Our indispensable task is to respect the faiths and to preserve the holy places belonging to other people. The gathering of the divine religions in Jerusalem may be considered as a part of the faith tourism. Besides that, there are some signs in Koran such as "We offered benefactions, vines, gardens and seas to you... Take advantage of them, benefit from them" hinting the ordinary tourism. However, the faith tourism is something different. This is an activity enabling us to establish closer relationships and to be acquainted with each other acccording to the definition of Koran and our religion gives high importance to the tourism. Our prophet said the following for the travel:"Travel for your health." So, the tourism activity has a place in our lofty religion. And we should attribute the necessary importance to the tourism. Of course, there are some conditions for the success of this tourism activity. I will not elaborate them. Mr. Başaran Ulusoy knows thsese facts better than me. What I want to emphasize is that the confidence, the security and the sincerity are a must in order to behave in a common way in this matter. I thank you for your participation in this meeting with the hope of a world where the peace and the calm prevail and the humanity is not deprived from finding and choosing the truth. Bartholomeos I The Greek Patriarch of İstanbul "Turkey is the center of attraction of the Christian world" His Excellency the Minister of Culture, His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz, His Excellency the Patriarch and the religious men, His Excellency the Governor of Aydın Emir Durmaz, His Excellency the District Governor of Kuşadası, His Excellency Başaran Ulusoy, the President of the Board of Directors of TÜRSAB, Distinguished Ambassadors and Consuls, Distinguished professors, dear representatives of travel agencies, dear press members and dear guests... I would like to thank first the President of Religious Affairs Mr. Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz and the President of the Board of Directors of TÜRSAB Mr. Başaran Ulusoy who organised these significant and wonderful meetings and were kind enough to invite us. In this atmosphere where the representatives of the tourism of our country have been gathered, we would like to talk briefly about the religious visits or in other words the faith tourism. As you know, the tourism is an activity bringing together people living in different geographies and offering the opportunity to meet and to know each other. Thus, people begin to feel sympathy for the countries that they visit and they expand the borders of tolerance and sympathy for the countries and cultures which they begin to be acquainted with. On the other hand, the acquaintance of people belonging to different religions and cultures is very important in order remove the prejudices, to provide a basis for mutual support and thus to contribute to the peace on the world. The efforts of our patriarchate for the dialogue among religions and the initiatives taken are also oriented to this target. The geography where we live is very important in the field of the faith tourism developing very fastly in the recent years. We are living on the lands where the Christianity first propagated and admitted by the communities. All the Ecumenical Consuls between the IV.th and the VIIIth centuries gathered in İznik, İstanbul, Ephesus and Kadıköy. Unfortunately, these values have not been evaluated sufficiently and brought to light. We would like to state that the saints who had lived in the first years of the Christianity and considered as the fathers and mothers of the Christian ideology and rituals are the compatriots of many of us. There are hundreds of churches in the Thrace and Anatolia but today, many of them need restoration. These historical data transform Turkey to a center of attraction for the Christian world. The Christianity reached Europe after being propagated in Anatolia and it is not possible to find pieces of art and worship places in Europe dating from Christianity which are as old as those existing in Anatolia. It’s one of the needs of our contemporary civilisation to restore at least partially these divine places. In this regard, we appreciate the activities carried out by the Ministry of Culture and TÜRSAB and the works helping to improve the image of Turkey. We would like also to emphasize that our patriarchate has recently undertaken some kind of initiative without discrimination of religion for the restoration of the holy places wherever they are... The name of this initiative is ACE. This movement has arisen following the destruction of holy places and divine symbols in the Balkans and during the Taliban period in Afghanistan. The first official meeting of ACE has been held last year in Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria. By coincidence, the dates of our meeting were 9-11 September 2002. In other words, on the day of 11th September when our meetings ended, these tragic events happened in New York. I would like to emphasize here especially the Kayaköy Project which TÜRSAB will realise in coordination with the Turkish Chamber of Architects and Engineers. According to the project including Kayaköy, the aim is to restore the two churches which have been used for worshipping until the beginning of the 20th century. This kind of undertakings expressing the mutual respect of people for faith deserve to be appreciated. Again, we would like to report you some fresh news in this regard; the Greek government decided to restore the demolished minaret of an old mosque on the Island of Rhodes from the state budget. We feel sorrow for a demolished church as well as for the other holy places belonging to the other religions. We consider this approach as the basis of the civilisation and we expect also other people to behave in the same way. The aim of the religious visits is to strengthen and to deepen this spiritual relation between the believers and the holy places and the religious men of the past. Briefly, the most important point here is the spirituality. And the task of the travel agencies is to approach the religious visits and the visitors by this consciousness and to fulfill their responsibilities on their part. I would like to emphasize here that respecting the faith of other people doesn’t mean to lose his own faith. On the contrary, those who respect their own faith respect the others’ faith too. In this matter, the lack of information and presentation arises as the most important problem of the tourism sector. Of course, there is a need for much special effort in order to realise duly the faith tourism with some rules and properties. As there aren’t much experts in our universities for the Christian history, some values are learnt from the foreigners and this fact sometimes gives rise to some unpleasant situations. So, we try to help everyone applying to the staff of our patriarchate or the library in order to compensate this gap. We believe that if we respect the different faiths of our guests and we try to be informed in this matter, the share of the faith tourism will increase in the touristic activities of Turkey. Thank you. Prof. Dr. Suat Çağlayan The Minister of Culture "The struggle among civilisations will not happen where there is olive." His Excellency Mr.Governor, His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs, dear leaders of the religious communities, dear Mr. President of TÜRSAB, dear guests, welcome. We are participating in a very meaningful meeting in a beautiful place. Turkey is a very rich country; it’s really very rich from the point of the cultural heritage, a magnificient country. This is valid for the cultural dimension and religious dimension. You may see a cultural heritage everywhere in our country and especially the three big religions.If we present properly this heritage, I see no obstacle for the increase of these faith and cultural tours. For this matter, The Minister of Culture tries its best in coordination with various establishments and corporations. And one of these corporations active in this area is TÜRSAB. We have anyway the same purpose; we want to put forward our cultural treasury and to offer it to the humanity. Thus, people come here, evaluate the past in an atmosphere of tolerance and strengthen their decisive attitude for peace with their feelings of affection. The freedom of thought has many sub-categories. But I think the most important is the freedom of faith. The thesis of the struggle among civilisations and the idea of bloodshed frighten us. It’s unbelievable that the faiths based on the divine fundamentals be interpreted falsely and be misused by the malignant persons. There are many efforts in order to establish the dialogue among religions. Where there are huge efforts, it means that there is a big problem there. This effort tries to solve the problem. Of course, the Anatolian geography where Turkey is found is the most suitable place for these efforts. Anatolia has been the principal area of peace and tolerance. It has been the area of people saying "Come whoever you are, come again" and "Even if your are offended, don’t offend" centuries ago. In this context, different religions coexisted in peace on these lands. We have a big cultural heritage belonging to these religions. We take care of this cultural heritage; we take care of Antakya, Ephesus, Van, Mardin, İstanbul, Cappadocia... We take care of all of them. We want to offer all of them to the faith tourism under the best conditions. The faith and tourism are very close to each other. Tourism is some kind of communication of love, the transfer of peace and the transfer of tolerance. People dealing with the tourism have a lot to do in a period where the terrorism using the religion as a means reached huge dimensions. The tourism should absolutely gain momentum, be promoted, encouraged and used as a means bringing together people with the purpose of faith, travel or just seeing some cultural elements. We undergo a very difficult period. However, I’m sure that this kind of meetings will facilitate to change these difficult days within the context of establishing the peace among religions. Successful steps are made within this subject. We see them. The representatives of each religion share the same feelings and try to serve the same purpose. This is the Aegean Region, this is the region of olive. So, where there is olive, there is also civilisation. There is tolerance, there is human being there. There is that here. There are civilisations here. Here, there is respect for religions. In this region, the thesis of "Struggle among civilisations" from Samuel Huntington will be refuted. The theory of struggle, the anticipation of struggle among religions of Samuel Huntington should not be realised. Let us refute the thesis of Huntington. Let us refute the thesis of struggle among civilisations of Huntington through the dialogue among religions and the faith tourism. Thank you. Emir Durmaz The Governor of Aydın "We need love too much"
His Excellency the Minister, His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs, dear leaders and representatives of the religious communities, dear Mr. President of TÜRSAB, dear guests, dear representatives of our media...For the Faith Tourism Days, we convened in Aydın famous with its natular beauties and which has been the center of the trade, the cradle of the civilisations, the leader of the tourism. We welcome our Distiguished Minister of Culture Mr.Suat Çağlayan as well as our dear audience with our esteemed religious leaders. This region representing our country in the tourism and especially in the faith tourism is one of the important doors of Turkey opening to the world. Our area is closer to Ephesus, admitted as one of the holiest cities of the Christian world and the second antique city still standing up on the world and to the House of St. Marie declared the pilgrimage site. The convention of this symposium showing the necessity and the importance of the humanity to live in peace makes certainly the meeting more significant. The messages to be conveyed from this region of our country will contribute to the admission of the peace and tolerance among religions as a common share and will provide the possibility for people to continue their travels with the purpose of faith. As the great leader of the founder of our Republic Atatürk pointed out, everyone living in Turkey is free to worship. We respect all the religions, the religious men and the freedom of worship as much as we respect the rules of our religion. This a reality of our history. In the same time, this reality is also a necessity of our social responsibility adopted by us. Turkey which had been in the past on the geography of various faiths and civilisations will continue to be example in order to keep our world as a living place in the future as in the past. The importance of the human life is the common principle of the other religions as it is in the Islamic religion. However the humanity who should learn lessons from the past unfortunately still witnesses that the cultural properties in different geographies on the world are being demolished and destroyed. Under these circumstances, the importance of the contributions of our country to the peace on the world and to let the tolerance be accepted as common share is emphasized once again. Now, an old epoch is finished and we are at the beginning of a new century whose conditions gain new dimensions every day and big changes are happening in each area. In this century, the humanity should be more tolerant and full of affection. However the terror attacks happening in different geographies on the world show that no one and no country are far from this threat and in no way, the terror should be protected. The attacks aiming at the humanity point out to the fact that we should emphasize the positive and the guiding role of the religions. Due to the steps made to show that the religions are constructive, integrating and guiding, I congratulate the efforts of our Presidency of Religious Affairs as well as the distinguished religious leaders on the world. Our distinguished Mr. Minister and dear guests, I would like also to talk about the visits to the holy places started since the emergence of the religions and being the subject of this symposium. The religious faiths form the basis of the faith tourism beginning by visiting places considered holy by the people. These visits create an economic activity as well as they play an important role in the improvement of the peace on the world and the dialogue among religions. People belonging to the same religion but living in different parts of the world gathered in the holy places of their religion and thus they share their own faith and in the same time, they create a social and cultural interaction with each other and those living in the region of these holy sites. When this reality is taken into account, the faith tourism underlines the tolerance, respect and love among people. So, we should absolutely support the organisations realised within the context of the faith tourism. These supports will also express our respect for the world religions’ history. His Excellency the Minister, dear guests, our country owns many places very precious for the religions. Our aim should be to propagate the faith tourism having a very special and important place in the tourism sector according to its significance. I believe that the attraction notions of our faith tourism with the faith and cultural heritage of our our country will be strengthened through this activity. It will contribute to the continuity of the peaceful atmosphere of the countries and the religions and a peaceful world. While finishing my speech, I welcome again the representatives of the religions and the whole humanity and our other guests. I congratulate the distinguished president of TÜRSAB, the administration and I pay you my respects. Tahir Bayraktaş The Representative of the Mayor of Kuşadası "Kuşadası is the common property of the world humanity" His Excellency the Minister, His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs, His Excellency the Governor, His Excellency the District Governor, dear leaders and administrators of the religious communities, dear representatives of universities, dear members of the world tourism sector, dear press members, dear friends gathering here to share the love with us.... Our meeting here in Kuşadası is organised in proper time, place and with the right target for the dispersion of the black atmosphere surrounding the world humanity and being a matter of concern for everyone with good sense. We welcome you on behalf of the Municipality of Kuşadası. We are in the proper place because Kuşadası is the common property of the world humanity with its history, culture and nature. We are in proper time as we suffer because of the massacre carried out on behalf of God who is our creator, guide and protector. Our target is right; we convened here in order to ideliase faith and tourism which are two wonderful concepts able to connect the world humanity to each other. As we are the followers of a generation defending the principle "Peace in the country, peace on the world", the most important gift of our great leader Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of our Republic and we share again with you that the unique alternative of the world humanity is peace. One of the ways leading to the peace is the tourism enabling all cultures on the world to know each other thoroughly. The other way is the passion for God which no concept can replace, the path of love guided by Him and the faith. I believe that we will leave a better world to our children by adopting these principles, by being patient to each other, by being acquainted with each other and loving each other due to this acquaintance, by softening the radical ideas through the proper methods. We congratulate you, our dear guests and our dear fellows for your efforts done on behalf of the world humanity and we are very proud to be today with you waiting to share the love inside their hearts. We declare our belief for love, friendship, peace and the fellowship of the world humanity. We remember with respect all the honorary people who had lived on these lands hosting a big part of the world culture and who had guided us in the path of love and I declare that we love very much all of them. I bring you the wish of love and respect of Kuşadası people and congratulate you for your efforts. Kostas Katsigiannis The General Director of The National Organisation of Tourism of Greece and the Ministry of Tourism of Greece "Turkey and Greece should implement new tourism programmes." Dear guests, dear friends. I’m very happy to be in beautiful Kuşadası with you. I come for the third time to this touristic region. Previoulsy, in June 2000, I had participated in a special meeting related to the touristic development of the region. I would like to thank first the organisers who invited me to this meeting. I thank also for your kind interest and hospitality towards me. You show this hospitality each time I visit Turkey. I try for the improvement of the Turkish –Greek dialogue as the representative of the Ministry of Tourism of Greece. Thus I have visited many cities of Turkey in the last three years. I would like to talk to you briefly about the developments in the tourism between two countries. And I would like especially to emphasize the faith tourism. Tourism is very important for both countries. If we think that billions of dollars are spent by the foreigners every year, the economic benefit of these activities should not be neglected. In the same time, the tourism provides job opportunities to thousands of persons. Especially both countries should implement new common tourism programmes aiming at extending the tourism season. The positive results of these useful works will be reflected to all areas. Every year, 25 million foreign tourists from European countries such as Germany, Britain, France and Russia visit Greece and Turkey. It’s a very well known reality that two hundred million foreign tourists visit the countries in the Mediterranean basin including Greece and Turkey. A coordination should be established with the other countries in order to enable the Mediterranean tourism to develop. These countries should determine their traditional common points, benefit from them and should not compete against each other. The Turkey – Greece states tourism agreement was signed first in 1979. However, no positive step has been taken after this agreement. In 1999, new relations have been established in the field of tourism after the negotiations conducted between the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Greece Yorgo Andreas Papandreou and the Minister of Foriegn Affairs of Turkey İsmail Cem. After the establishment of these relations, a common team has been formed and I’m very proud of representing my country in this team. In the months of October and November of 1999, five meetings – two in Ankara and three meetings in Athens - have been held successfully and tourism contracts have been signed between two countries. The coordination agreement in January 2000 was signed by the Ministers of Tourism and Foreign Affairs of both countries. The subjects related to the tourism in the cooordination agreement are as follows: The statistical notions, the training of tourism, the yacht tourism, the cultural tourism, the faith tourism. At the same time, the common works with the private sector have been developed a lot up to now. The participation of the private sector representatives of both countries in the forums organised every year make the common works more successful. On the other hand, the businessmen, the hotel owners, the tourism agencies of both countries conduct common programmes. Again a big participation is observed to the fairs of tourism in Istanbul, Selanik and Athens every year. As the faith tourism is very important in the tourism sector, effective possibilities of coordination will arise for both countries today and in the future. The visits to the old monasteries, churches, mosques in the regions such as Northern Greece, Macedonia, the Thrace and in Istanbul are included in the travel agencies programmes. In the same time, the activities related to the faith tourism started between Midilli and Ayvalık. Besides the others, the Kayaköy Project in Turkey is a very precious example. Kayaköy is an old Greek village very interesing historically and architecturally. The restoration programme of the village buildings in ruins has started with the coordination of TÜRSAB and the Turkish Chamber of Architects and Engineers. The restoration of the churches and the schools of the village is at the first rank. Besides these works, the restoration projects of the religious edifices in Ayvalık, Istanbul and Antalya are under way. There are very important religious works offered as a heritage to the humanity both in Greece and in Turkey. For this reason, the coordination of the public and private sectors and the scientific associations is very useful for both countries. Thus, we will be able to preserve the cultural treasury that our ancestors left to us. Also, we will be able to show our rich culture to the markets in the foreign countries. Every foreign visitor will have the opportunity to evaluate the cultural resources of the world. The historical monasteries in the Island of Samos may be used with the purpose of tourism and included in the common tourism programmes. A network may be established between the religious buildings in Patnos and on the other Greek islands and those existing in Turkey and may be included in the common tourism programmes. From the historical Cappadocia to Ephesus, from Samos to Kavala, Selanik, Athens and Korintos and the other Mediterranean regions, they are the most famous destinations of the culture and faith tourism. The Ministry of Tourism of Turkey published very interesting and good pamphlets about this subject. The Undersecretary of Tourism of Greece too wants to do the same. At the end of my speech, I wish success to the symposium and I’m sure that we’ll see the positive results of our works on the tourism policies in the near future. We see that many significant steps have been taken in the Turkish-Greek relations up to now. We should benefit from the advantages provided by the tourism and we should continue the coordination. The faith tourism is the best example of it. Because our purpose is to extend the tourism season to the whole year due to the support of the alternative tourism. I thank your for your kind interest. Dr. Guirgius Boutros On behalf of the Egyptian Catholic Community "The Religion is for God, the nation is for everyone." His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz, His Excellency the Minister of Culture Mr. Suat Çağlayan, dear religious leaders and Mr. Başaran Ulusoy, the President of TÜRSAB. Please let me open my heart to you. Because the properties of "God’s blessing" are written in the Holy Bible. There is no inconvenience for us to begin to talk with "Bismillahirrahmanirrahim". Because He is the unique creator of the earth and the sky. Because He is the creator, God and mercy for everyone and everything. We accept all of us a unique creator and a unique prostration. The religion is for God and the nation is for everyone. I came here upon your kind invitation. The Messiahship had been born in the Palestine and then propagated to your precious country. God sent all the big religions to this geography being your lands and then propagated to the world. We want to have some important advices from this meeting. We should be in a continuous relationship with the press and televisions. We should work to strengthen the relations between the Turkish people and the Egyptians. We wish that Turkey has an important place in the faith tourism. This country possesses really an important richness in this field and this richness gives ideas about culture to the world. I would like to thank the representatives of tourism of your precious country who made efforts for the realisation of this meeting. This is the first step and I wish that these steps will continue. I’m sure that many important messages will be delivered from the speeches of those participating in these meetings. I would like to express my opinion on behalf of the Messiah community in Egypt that we are in love with your country. Welcome to the heart of the Egypt. Welcome with your hospitality and affection. I will not talk any more and I thank you once again. II RELIGIONS
CO-EXISTING Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz The President of Religious Affairs "The religions should not be used as a tool for dispute." His Excellency the Governor, dear guests, I would like to welcome you before delivering my speech. This meeting is organised by TÜRSAB in order to develop the faith tourism. Of course, we coordinate with TÜRSAB. But the real organiser of the work is TÜRSAB. Our dear friend Mr.Başaran Ulusoy, as always, made great effort for this meeting and brought so many participants from our country and abroad to this beautiful Kuşadası. I would like to express my gratitude once again. We need of course freedom of faith in order to develop the faith tourism. In other words, the faith tourism cannot be performed if there is no freedom of faith. And the freedom of faith does exist in our religion in the perfect sense. The Muslim states, the Muslim nations showed this attitude beginning form the era of our Prophet until today by their practices. Is there any need for proving that there is freedom of faith in our country? You see, the churches, the synagogues are all together. They coexisted peacefully in the past and I wish they will continue to coexist. This is the proof of the freedom of faith. Here we are together with the representatives of the holy religions in other words with the distinguished leaders of various religious communities. We also convened in Tarsus. We always gather when the necessity arises. We gather during the Ramadan dinners of Mr. Akkan Suver. We believe that this dialogue is not an alternative but a must. The religions should not be the tools of disputes and struggles. If the problems among religions in other words among the representatives of the religions are not solved, it is not possible to solve other problems. There is a saying formulated for this fact: The peace will just be a dream unless the peace among religions is established. The freedom of conscience and faith is existing in our Turkey. I repeat again, we see the proof of this fact. The religious leaders of the Islamic, Christian and Jewish religions are gathered here. There is no struggle, no dispute among us. Like in the Golden Age. Like in the centuries that followed it. We live together and in unity. Our target is to improve this dialogue. We should not be anxious about it. Some people are anxious about it and criticise us. The religion in other words the faith is a matter of conscience. There is no intervention in the consciences. Our religion orders tolerance. It has been never hard. Our purpose is to show the beauty of our religion in this way. This is not an artificial effort; we do whatever is the truth. Because there are many passages in Koran related to the theists. When these passages are observed, it’s seen that there are orders to behave kindly to the theists and to establish good relations with them. I don’t want to talk too much about this notion. Maybe I will do some evaluation at the end of the speeches. And I will try to elaborate the subject in detail. The topic of our first symposium is "Religions co-existing in the Cradle of Civilisation, Anatolia and the Religious Tolerance". For this topic, I invite Mr. Mutafyan to talk on behalf of the Armenian Patriarchate of Turkey. Mesrob II Mutafyan The Armenian Patriarch of Turkey "We need worship places in the centers of faith." His Excellency the President, His Excellency the Governor, His Excellency the District Governor, His Excellency the President of TÜRSAB, dear guests... I’m happy to be among you on the occasion of the Faith Tourism Days; especially for the fact that this meeting is held in Kuşadası. Our summer house has been here for twelve years. For this reason, I’m very happy of being here for this occasion. I would like first to talk about the religions who had existed in Anatolia, the cradle of civilisations. Then, I would like to express my opinion briefly about the faith tourism. When the subject is about the civilisations in Anatolia, one of these civilisations is Christianity which has propagated to Anatolia just after the Palestine. Then it has reached Europe and Asia. And many of the Apostles of Jesus Christ declared the new religion, the New Testament on these lands. Many documents that we read today in the division of the New Testament of the Bible are rather related to Kilikya, Central Anatolia and Aegean Region. After that, the areas around Greece and Italy are told. This fact is very natural. Because this religion had been declared during the Roman Empire and as many of the archives of that time are written in Greek or Latin, these archives have been used when the documents have been gathered later on – around 325s. But many of the works of the other apostles don’t exist in the Bible. Many of these works have been gathered later on by an archbishop called Efsebyos who had lived in the Palestine at the beginning of the 4th century; thus we learnt the works of the Apostles in the East Anatolia, Southern Anatolia, Caucasia, the Northern Mesopotamia from Efsebyos. Also before them, the Jewish historians and Yusuf seen as one of the fathers of the Jewish history tell us the history of that period. Efsebyos informs us that the apostles had worked in the East Anatolia during the period of Paulus, Petrus, Johannis. And the first tribe of Semitic origin admitting the Christianity had been the Syrians in Anatolia and the Northern Mesopotamia. And the first tribe of Indo-European origin admitting the Christianity had been the Armenians. And these two tribes didn’t migrate here from somewhere. They are of Anatolian origin; as the Armenians had not had yet their own alphabet, the Syrians and the Armenians had been both influenced from Cappadocia and especially from Edesa, from the ancient Urfa. This situation has been valid until 301. Then, with the invention of the Erbil alphabet, the Armenian language became written. And the Armenian church has entered into the period of formation in the first century through the works of these divine apostles. The foundation of the contemporary church has been laid at the beginning of the 4th century. Thus, one of the branches of the Christianity has been the Armenian church in Anatolia since 1750 years. Today, the Armenian church has four patriarchs in the world. One of them is Etchmiadzin near the capital of Armenia, Yerevan. The others are respectively in Beyrouth, Jerusalem and Istanbul. The Patriarch in Istanbul has not been established by the Armenians. After the conquest of Istanbul by Fatih Sultan Mehmet, there were two sorts of Christianity within the borders of the empire. One part of them had accepted the first three ecumenical consuls and the others had admitted the fourth consul. Fatih Sultan Mehmet wanted to establish a center in Istanbul for the Christians who had accepted the first three consuls. Fatih invited the Archbishop of Bursa Hovagim – authorised also for Istanbul - to Istanbul and rose him to the position of patriarch in 1461. Thus, an Armenian Patriarch is existing in Istanbul since 550 years besides the Byzantine Greek Patriarch. This patriarchate has included the Armenian communities from the Mountain of Ararat to America during the Ottoman period. When the Ottoman Empire has withdrawn to the actual borders of the Turkish Republic, the position of the Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul has been limited by Turkey. Today, the spiritual authority of the Armenian Patriarch in Istanbul includes the Armenian communities in Turkey and Crete. Following this brief explanation about the Armenian Church belonging to the Christian culture and religion living in Anatolia, I would like to express immediately my opinions about the faith tourism. Of course, we can talk about the existence of the faith tourism and also the existence of the tourism faith. However, if we talk about the faith tourism, we cannot neglect the notion of faith. This is important from many aspects. First of all, it’s important for the dialogue among religions. Secondly, it’s important in order to establish peace on the world. As the distinguished President of Religious Affairs mentioned, the peace on the world cannot exist without peace among religions. Today, many problems from the point of the European Union or in other areas, arise from the point of view of a human being for the other which is more important that the economic and politic problems. And in order to change the point of view for others, we should be acquainted with others. Once, a question had been asked to Jesus Christ: "There are ten commands and according to you, which is the most important? Or in other words, which command is the most important among the other laws, religious laws?" Jesus Christ had answered immediately:"The first order is to love God. You will love God with your heart, with your soul." And he had continued:"You will love your neighbour". The love for God and the love for human beings.... The love for God and the love for your neighbour... Today, who is your neighbour? And he had told a story about the question "Who is your neighbour?".: "The brigands attacked a man. And this man wounded because of the attacks has been left on the road. A religious man passing by the man seemed not to have seen him. And a Samaritan considered as enemy passed by the same way. The Samaritan had piety of the man and applied a pomade to his wounds. And then he took him to a inn, made the necessary payment and continued his way. And Jesus Christ asked:"So, who is the neighbour of this man? The one who is from the same race and who had behaved as not to have seen the wounded man? Or the other Samaritan?" So, who is your neighbour today? Today your neighbour is not someone living next to your home, just sharing your thoughts and coordinating with you. Actually, the countries and the civilisations have also neighbours. All people are our neighbours. All people are our human brothers. For this reason, we should accept people as they are, respect them and first of all understand them. The faith tourism may be a good opportunity in order to undestand each other. But the notion of faith should be fed through these visits in order to realise the faith tourism, to include the notion of faith in the faith tourism. I completed my postgraduate education in the Jewish University of Jerusalem in the field of the Holy Book Archeology. At the same time, I worked as tourist guide with cockade for three years. I know the expectations of people as I guided many faith groups before being a religious man. People – atheist or not – visit everywhere including the worship places. But especially, people coming with the purpose of faith are not satisfied by just visiting these holy places, they also want to live something there. Because these people come here in order to feel something, to hear something and to feed their soul. They want to hear some canticles, to sing some canticles. They want to learn something related to their religions and faiths. For this reason, the religious place should be built in the faith tourism centers. A few minutes ago, our President of Religious Affairs left the symposium went to the mosque and prayed; we said "God accept it". He went back and sat to the table with us. On the other hand, the Christian people here, where will they go in Kuşadası, Ephesus? We are not obliged to climb the Bülbül Mountain. A worship place should be built here. It’s not necessary that these places belong to a patriarchate. It may be allocated to the Municipality. And the Municipality may inform beforewards if a group wants to use this place. A letter can be written... A travel agency or the leader of the group may write it. The security forces investigate the purpose of this group and give the permission accordingly. Thus people may worship freely. This notion is missing in Turkey. The faith tourism is missing in Turkey. Our second problem is about the guides. I talked directly many times with the travel agencies, we are ready; we are ready to organise courses for you for a few hours and a few days in a year about the Christian culture, the religion, the history of church, the places to be visited and the informations to be given to people. There is a problem of guide in Turkey. Some people are really well informed. They know everything better than us. But the majority’s knowledge is not at a satisfactory level. If the groups have their own guide, we notice that these guides explain more than the others. But we cannot appoint a guide for them. The preparation of the guides especially for the faith tourism is very important. On the other hand, our school books cannot inform well the children about the religious culture. There is a work in the recent times. The religious teachers, the religious men from the Christian churches, the Chief Rabbinate convened and they asked for the explanation of each religion. The purpose is to prepare a good religious book. Because if you insist to tell the Christianity based on the Koran and teach children accordingly, you can never learn and never teach that religion. And this fact will never help to understand the other person. For this reason, the religious books in the schools should be revised. The Islamic religion should be explained as an Islamic religion. And the informations related to the Christianity should be edited by the Christian people. The tools are very important for the faith tourism. The related books should be prepared. Our guide books, and in general the tourism books are very well prepared in Turkey. According to my opinion, our published books are better than those in Europe in the field of tourism. However, we don’t have any pamphlet, booklet related to the faith tourism which we can give to people visiting the country with the purpose of faith. And it’s possible to prepare them in coordination with the Christian churches in Turkey. Thus, I reported to you my expectations in this field. The majority of the Armenian community in Turkey live in Istanbul. We have also some smaller communities in Anatolia. However, the starting point of the Armenian church with a population of 8 millions is Kayseri. Everything began in Kayseri. The foundation of the Armenian Church had been laid in 301 in Başkale where the apostles first preached. The Christianity has been propagated among the Armenians especially by the Apostle St. Bartalomeos. Today, his grave is said to be found in the village of Başkale of Van and there is a big church over it. This place is not open to the tourism. The other places interesting for the people of our sect are the Church of Ahtamar in Van and the Seven Churches in the Erek Mountain of Van; the Ruins of Ani; the visiting places of St. Nerses in Rum Kale, Gaziantep; and the most important visiting place among them is our church in Kayseri of Cappadocia. In 301, St.Gregory had been sanctified bishop in this church. This church is open to all the tours groups, visitors. It may be used by everyone whatever his sect is. This is a foundation still operating. Our church in Malatya is just in the center of the town like a monument but is closed. For this fact, we applied to our statesmen and proposed to open the church and asked them to operate it. We may use it sometimes in a year. Thus, the church may be opened to the tourism and be used by any group coming to Malatya without making any discrimination of sect.....Thank you for listening to me. Ishak Alaluf
"Love your neighbour as yourself."On behalf of the Chief Rabbinate of Turkey Dear guests.... I would like to begin my speech with the word "şalom" meaning peace and I would like to report you the best wishes and the blessing of Mr. Rav İshak Haleva who has been appointed yesterday evening the spiritual leader of the Jewish community in Turkey which I represent. The Anatolia is a real cradle of civilisations. Thousands of civilisations have existed on these lands. Religions have been born, grown and developed here. This geography has sometimes witnessed an atmosphere of tolerance and sometimes wars. However today, we have the opportunity to see the traces of all the civilisations. The Jewish religion which is one of religions which had existed in Anatolia dates back to the Prophet Abraham accoding to us. However, the history of the Jewish community in Anatolia is not so old. I would like to explain briefly our religious history. The first order given to the Prophet Abraham in the Old Testament is the following:"Leave the Harran Plain and go to the lands of Canaan.". As you know the region between the West Bank and the Mediterranean is called the lands of Canaan. The first command related to go to these lands comes from God. Thus the Prophet Abraham pays a short visit to the Egypt upon the demand of God and then returns to Canaan and teaches the monotheism to his son Isaac and his grand son Jacob. Jacob goes to Egypt after the departure of his son Joseph to Egypt and stays there until his death. When he returns from Egypt, he lives in the town called El Halil in Arabic language or in Hevron in the Jewish language. We know that the graves of three of them are in this town. After the title os Israel given to the Prophet Jacob for some occasion, we are called Beni İsrael or the sons of Israel or the sons of Jacob. Our ancestors had left Egypt following the slavery of 210 years. They leave Egypt under the leadership of the Prophet Moses. And they begin to walk to the promised lands. As you know, the most important step of this travel is the "ten commands event" in the Sina Mountain or the Sinai Mountain in Hebrew. The Prophet Moses dies when he reaches the side of the Canaan lands or the promised lands and Canaan is conquered by the leadership of his disciple or representative. First, we see a period of judges there. It’s followed by the period of kings. The first important king whom we know is the king Saül. But the ruling of Saül for 40 years is not successful. However, during the time of David Jerusalem is conquered and the town became center. During the time of his son King Salomon and the Prophet Salomon a very strong centralisation is established. Thus the foundation of the Great Kingdom of Israel is laid. After the reign of Salomon, the kingdom is divided into two, the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Juda in the south. And we see that the Kingdom of Israel is ended by the Assyrians 209 years after and the Kingdom of Juda is ended by the Babylonians 400 years after. There is a short Babylonian exile, nearly 70 years. Then, the Second Kingdom of Juda is founded as a religious kingdom completely. And after the demolition of the temple for the second time by Titus in A.D. 70, the Jewish community is dispersed all over the world. The diaspora in other words the migration to the foreign countries which started during the time of Salomon by the construction of the commercial ways towards the foreign countries, becomes more widespread after this event. We observe a very old presence of the Jewish community in Anatolia from the graveyard stones. There is a synagogue in Sartist as you know; it’s a very big synagogue. We see that this synagogue remaining from the Roman period is a bit active at that time. But the real activity begins after the migration of the Iberian Jewish people to the Ottoman Espire in 1492. There are two synagogues in Bursa which is the first center of the Ottoman Empie founded following the period of Beyliks; one of these synagogues is the Mayor Synagogue, the other is the Geruş Synagogue. Moreover, there has been also the Etsahayim Synagogue until 50 years ago and this synagogue had been built upon the firman of Orhan Bey. As my wife is from Bursa, I’m able to give you more clear informations. Then Edirne becomes the capital. The Jewish community living in Edirne and speaking only Greek comes to Bursa besides their nationals and tries to learn the Turkish language. İshak Paşa or Rav İshak Sarvati who is the doctor of Sultan Murat II in Edirne invites his oppressed coreligionists in Europe or in the Central Europe called Ashkenaz to live under the tolerance and the justice of the flag with crescent. Again, during the period of the II.Murat, amother problem arises: The Şeyh Bedrettin Revolt. We see that the assistant Torlak Kemal of Şeyh Bedrettin is a converted Jewish. Through the positive and negative examples, we become aware that the Jewish people are immediately integrated into the Ottoman life. Before conquering Istanbul, Fatih Sultan Mehmet concludes an agreement with the non- Muslim communities and gives them the freedom of faith. His doctor is Yakup and he’s exempted from all taxes. You know, there is a migration during the time of Beyazıt II. Beyazıt II says the following referring to Ferdinand:"Who can say that this king is clever? He enriches my country while impoverishing his own." A writer called Moşe Sevilla Şaron states in his book "The Jewish in Turkey" that this migration happens at a time when the Ottoman state needs qualified persons. Who came here?... The Hamon family who is composed of doctors; the Nasi family composed of diplomats; one of the synagogues in İzmir called Giveret or La Sinyora is built by the donation of a family coming from there. We may also talk of Salamon Eskenazi who is a great diplomat... And with the end of the advancement period, the progress of the Jewish community ends too. They stop and regress parallel to the empire; this is the result of the integration... And the community starts to disperse. However, as a citizen of the young Turkish Republic, we continue today our life in an environment of peace, security and tolerance. After this brief explanation, I would like to give some information about the Jewish religion... Our rules are assembled under two principal headings being the written and the oral laws. The written laws cover the Old Testament, the history of the prophets and the sacred scriptures.... They are formed of 24 books and named Old Testament. One of the is the Pentateuch is a very important source given to the Prophet Moses on the Sina Mountain and still existing today without any modification. Today we have a Pentateuch of approximately 2000 years old. This Pentateuch which has been discovered in Yemen by the method of radioactive carbon, conforms to those existing today. Then there is the history of the prophets which is a book including the commands and the legends. The oral laws are reported verbally since the Prophet Moses from generation to generation. We call this book Mişna formed of six volumes. Mişna is then studied in Babylon and Jerusalem and a marvellous work named Talmut is created. Talmut is written in the Aramaic language. It’s very similar to the Hebrew language. Another work called Alaga and arranging the rules of the daily life follows this work. There is an important work composed of 16 volumes called Ready Table written by Ravyo Sefkaro who was born in the town of Kordoba of Spain in the 16th century and then became rabbinate in Edirne and died in the town of Safet of the Ottoman Empire. As time goes by, Alaga in other words the rules may be updated by being faithful to the Pentateuch. But, all the religious men express their opinions for this updating and the precondition is that these arrangements should not be in contradiciton with the basic laws of the Pentateuch. Our subject is tolerance; it means that even if we don’t share the opinions of the others or we oppose them, we should tolerate and respect them as much as our ideas. The religious tolerance means that we should respect the religion, the faith and the freedom of conscience of people whatever their religion or faith is. As mentioned in the Islamic religion – if I make a mistake please correct me – God, the Creator of the Universe, created us as a mosaic of cultures. If He had wished, He would have created us as the members of one religion. But as He created us as a mosaic of cultures, let me read to you the verses of Yunus Emre... I had learnt it in the lycée:"We read the alphabet/We made a lump bargaining/We tolerated the creature/Because of the Creator". I never forget it because it was an exam question. The preface in our Holy Book which is the Pentateuch saying "Don’t do anything to the others which you don’t want to be done to you" is a philosophy of life. And the 18th phrase in the 30th division of the third book of the Pentateuch is as follows:"Don’t be vindictive, don’t take revenge. Love your neighbour as yourself; I’m God." As the distinguished Patriarch said previously; who is this neighbour? This neighbour is the whole humanity, the whole creatures on the world" according to İbn Meymün or Maymorides. Although the ways leading to the reality are different, it’s natural to meet at the same point as there is one reality. Here, I would like to mention something called "the golden law". What should be the limit to be put in the relations with other people? Of course, it covers all the rights and as well as the love, the freedom and the rules of virtue. It asks that we should reach the reality whatever the leading way is but these ways should be the good ones. There was an article "Golden Law" of the author and poet, my dear friend Mr. Avran Şantura in the journal of "Şalom". Please let me read it here: "We may discover this Golden Law put forward by the faiths in the works of all philosophers in different styles. But our relationships develop between two poles during our life. Me and the others. We may ask this question to ourselves; what is good for me is also good for others? Does something good for me harm the others?Let us remind the last five items of the ten commands forming the basis of the monotheist faith: ‘Don’t kill, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t give false testimony, don’t desire anything belonging to your neighbour.’ We may conclude that these commands are the source of the golden law." The Metropolitan Yusuf Çetin On behalf of the Syriacs Orthodox Community "The dialogue begins by love and develops by love" His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs, His Exellency the Governor, His Excellency the Patriarch, Dear religious leaders, Dear Mr.President of TÜRSAB, dear representatives of tourism sector, dear press members and dear audience, I give you my best regards. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to deliver a speech on the occasion of such a useful activity organised within the context of the Faith Tourism Days. As a Syriacs community, we are continuing our life and our existence since centuries on these beautiful lands where tens of civilisations affecting the development of the world and history have been born. The Aramean Syrians whom we belong are from the origin of Aram, the fifth son of Sam who is the oldest son of the Prophet Noah. We are speaking the Aramic language used by our our father Abraham and then by Jesus Christ who followed him and we are living the same culture in other words we are trying to let it live. But the Aramean Syriacs adopted the name Syriac instead of Aramean referring to the name of Palestinian and Syriac apostles of Jesus Christ with the purpose of getting rid of the superstitions of the pagan Arameans after having accepted the Christianity in the 1st century. It’s supposed that the origin of the name Syria and Syrians is the King Suros who founded Antakya. It’s well known that the Syrians who are the successors of the Aramean culture developed the Aramean culture and language after the acceptance of Christianity by the King of Urfa V. Abgar in A.D. 34 and served a lot to the Anatolian people. The Aramean Syriac language was the language of state and business in the Middle East until A.D. 700. The ruins of the Syriac University in Harran which is one of the first universities on the world teaching this language are the most important proof for this fact. The Syrians have transferred the Greek philosophy to the Arab world, took place in the state protocole especially during the Abbasi period and assumed duties at the higher ranks. We always tried our best and continue to try in order to live in peace with the other people of different race, language and religion on the same lands. We see the examples of the tolerance and dialogue among the celestial religions adopting the monotheist belief in the history as well in the present time. During the Seldjuk reign, our Patriarch the Great Mihoyel in Malatya had established good relationships with the statesmen and collaborated with them against the pressures. His sincerity and close friendship with the Seldjuk Sultan II.Kılıçarslan is well known by the whole historians. The letter written by the Sultan to the Patriarch is a proof of this matter. The following is said in the letter:"From the Great Sultan Kılıçarslan to the Syriacs Patriarch living in the Mor Barşavin Monastery, friend of our reign and happy with our victories. We are aware that God glorifies our state by his prayers in this period. God granted us these victories due to you." On the other hand, the annulment of the monastery tax by the Sultan II. Kılıçarslan and the cross carrying the bones of St.Petrus offered to the Patriarch show their close friendship. As the Syriacs community, we took care of being in good relationships with the people and the state both during the Seldjuk and Ottoman periods and since the foundation of the Turkish Republic. We are also very happy that this mutual dialogue and tolerance gained momentum in recent years. In this regard, we are very grateful for the precious contributions of our distinguished President, Mr. President of Religious Affairs and the press members. I would like to express that the visit paid by His Excellency the President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to our Deyrulzafaran Monastery within the borders of Mardin which is the first visit since the visit made in 1950 by the late Celal Bayar was a very kind attitude for both our Syriacs community and the other Christian communities and we are very proud and happy with it. I would like to read you a short paragraph from the writing of Mr. President in the memory notebook of our monastery: "The contribution of the members of the devoted and talented Syriacs community who are an inseparable part of our nation to the progress and guarantee of our Turkish Republic is very important. These contributions will be especially meaningful in these days when the problems of the Southeastern Anatolia ended and a new economic programme has been implemented. "We always appreciate the important contributions of the President of Religious Affairs Mr. Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz to the improvement of the tolerance among religions. In addition to it, we are very happy to see that the news about the Christians, some monasteries and churches find a greater place in the news and programmes of the media. We consider the positive interaction created by the atmosphere of tolerance aiming at this purpose and tried to be provided through this kind of activities as a progress. Our purpose should be to live in mutual love and respect being as human beings of different language, religion and ethnic origins. There is a command in the 14th Passage of the 13th Division of Hebrews in the Bible saying the following:"Live in peace with the whole humanity as far as possible." This command of Jesus Christ named also the Golden Law is worthy to be mentioned: "Behave to other people in the same way that you want them to behave towards you." We understand that as Christians, our responsibility is to love our human borthers and to live peacefully with others as far as possible. In the Bible there is a such saying: "Someone who doesn’t love his brother whom he sees does not love also the God whom he doesn’t see." The dialogue begins with love, improves with love and is rooted with love. If the tolerance includes really a divine love, it will be fruitful."Today we witness here a good example of the culture of dialogue and tolerance tried to be established in recent years. We are gathered here by this good intention and wishes. Because we have fundametally many common values. In other words, we worship the same and unique God and we pray in different sorts and languages. We all accept the judgement of God and the existence of the heaven and the hell. We believe that human beings originated from their first ancestors who are Adam and Eve. So we are all the members of the humanity family. And we all know that we have equal rights as a citizen of this world. We should not forget that the world will become a more tolerable place both for us and for our children when we will embrace each other with tolerance and love for God by adopting all these beauties. If we succeed in getting rid of our prejudices based on the love, positive developments will happen both in our country and our world and it will provide benefits to the economic, social, cultural, religious and ethnic richness. As the Syriacs community and church living on these lands since 2000 years, we support this kind of activities aiming at the development of the culture of dialogue and tolerance among religions and human beings and we wish that the obstacles between human beings, religions, races and cultures will be removed. We are always ready to do the necessary efforts in this field. As I mentioned above, our faith also necessitates this situation. We always established dialogue and we lived in peace with the other communities whom we coexisted with since centuries. Our church has offered many saints, writers, literary men, scientific men and historians to these lands. We never isloated ourselves from the society whom we live together and will never isolate in the future. I pray so that the life based on the affection and the tolerance becomes a reality. As the Syriacs community, our efforts and contribution to the progress of our country in every field will continue like in the past. We support ardently the membership of our country to the European Union and we try to fulfill our responsibility in this regard. God save our beautiful country and the world from the catastrophes. God make our country happy, prosperous and happy and bless you. I thank you for your kind interest. Please accept my best regards. Archbishop Yusuf Sağ On behalf of the Syriacs Catholic Community "The real UN lives on these lands since thousands of years" His Excellency the President, His Excellency the Governor, his Excellency the President of TÜRSAB and dear members of the board of directors, dear press members and dear guests... Now, I don’t know how to begin to speak but I consented to my destiny. Why do I consent to my destiny? As His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs knows very well, the meaning of Yusuf is prosperity. However, unfortunately, the majority of Yusufs in the past and in the current time lived as sufferers. What can I say after these great orators and historians! So, that’s why I’m grateful of being a sufferer and I will consent to it. Theorically, many important things have been said. However we should explain how we arrived to these days, who have contributed and how we can be useful for the faith tourism and what we can do practically. Of course, everything has been said... It has been talked about the Islamic religion, the Syriacs, the Armenians, the Ottomans, the Turkish Republic, the Seldjuks. For my part, I can talk about the Elams, the Akads, the Urartus and the Syriacs. These are realities and very good facts. In other words, the humanity didn’t arrive to this level in one day. If we goes back to 50 years ago we may understand that especially the Turkish people made great progress with the Islamic, Christian, Yezidi, Jewish, Kurd and Arab communities. We arrived to these days through the efforts of some good people. I would like to express my gratitute especially to His Excellency the President of Religious Affairs Mr.Mehmet Nuri Yılmaz – as I speak actually on behalf of the Association of the Leaders of Catholic Bishops in Turkey – on behalf of myself as well as on behalf of the whole Catholic bishops and Catholic communities without compliments. So, today is a wedding day; it’s a joyful wedding; this is the wedding of Turkey; this is the wedding of cultures; this is the wedding of faiths. Saint Paulos says the following:"You will be sad with people who are in mourning and you will be happy with those who are happy." That’s why today is the day of wedding. While expressing my best regards for the President of Religious Affairs, I would like also to thank the other religious leaders who had contributed in this happening. I would like to express my deepest best wishes and best regards to our statesmen who are the real guards of our democratic secular system and our Governor who is the representative of these statesmen. Dear guests; I’m sure that you travelled within this country and abroad better than me. I didn’t know much about Turkey until I was appointed as the priest to Mardin after finishing my education in Lebanon in 1964. I didn’t know much about Europe too. I was just aware a little bit about the Arab world, Egypt and Lebanon as I studied there. I had also visited Jordan and Jerusalem on the holy lands because it was under the sovereignty of Jordan at that time. Because of my mission, I left my job of spiritiual leadership at the Pirinçlik Base in Diyarbakır joint to NATO between 1966 – 1969. Then I came to Istanbul upon the request of the Pope in Vatican. I lived in Istanbul until 1981 and then I went to Sweden as the founder of the Syriacs Catholic Church. I will tell you something. There is the town of Orebro in Sweden. I didn’t read in the book but it’s told that they digged around a castle where a King of Sweden had lived in the past and they found some stone. They preserved it. The history of the Sweden people is evaluated like that. Of course, I have respect for their culture. On the other hand, as a member of the Aramean race having a past of 5 thousand years and you who are living on these lands since thousand of years, if we take into consideration the example of Sweden, Turkey should be preserved from Edirne to Kars including the sea, the land and the air with the condition of touching nowhere. The history is sprung up from everywhere of Turkey; everywhere in Turkey is a mosaic of civilisations! The real UN is living on these lands since thousands of years. Why we applause the UN founded in 1945! Today, the UN of different faiths, different cultures and different nations of 700 years old at least, but in fact 2 – 3 thousand years old, live in Turkey within the borders of the National Pact. In the passage of the Koran, the following is written: "We divided you into nations, tribes." Why? Because this is the expression of the richness of God. We, ourselves, should believe in this richness. Let us present this richness to the world. And we should look for efforts for this fact. Mr. Demirel has a very beautiful saying:"The solutions are not exhausted in democracy." And the solutions for ourselves believing also in the reality of God and His unity don’t exhaust too. There are Kurds, Arabs, Syriacs, Armenians in Mardin; there have been also Jewish, Assyrian and Yezidi communities in the past... This is the real united nations. When USA, Europe have not existed yet, these communities lived the real humanity, the real wish and the real love and UNESCO of The Unided Nations since 2 thousand years. I greet this tradition from here. Come and let us present this tradition to the world. I talked a lot and there are too many things to say. However, I’m a sufferer and an unfortunate. What can I do? But please believe that I’m sincere. I did not make any compliment. There are many unknown soldiers trying to realise the dialogue between the Muslims and Christians. Dear Sirs, the wars are won due to the unknown soldiers and not the commanders. And there are so many saints not remembered by the history... The whole Anatolian people who may overcome the economic problems due to their faith, patience and resistance are so precious. Thank you. Marco Dondi On behalf of the Latin Community "There is no worship place in the House of St. Marie!" Thank you. I would like to convey you first the geetings of Mr. Monseigneur Bernardini, the Archbishop of the Latin Church of İzmir and his excuses for not being able to participate in this meeting. I greet all the official authorities, the distinguished religious men and the dear participants present as guest and those who contributed in realising this organisation. I would like first to state that more time is needed in order to elaborate this topic. For this reason, I will only underline some necessary expectations during my speech. Tomorrow, the distinguished professors will anyway elaborate the topic in detail. At the heading of the symposium, the theme of "the cradle of civilisation" is emphasized. Many cultures met and exchanged opinions as a result of the cultural cohabitation lasting for centuries and founded the systems of the known world. I would not like to state the possibility of repetition of the events happened in the past. However, I had to emphasize this reality. I would like also to state that I’m aware that our opinions will be considered weak and impossible if these culturel activities are not elaborated by the academicians whose fields of speciality include this kind of studies. I would ask you to focus your attention on the actual situation. We know that Anatolia is one of the most important cradles of the history of civilisation. In fact, Anatolia has been an important dwelling place where various cultures have cohabited through the activities of the armies, tradesmen, societies, travellers etc... However, today the situation is different. The Anatolia is no more a cultural intersection or an exceptional center where all the roads meet. Today the Anatolian lands belong to the Turkish Republic and the loyal Turkish people. Actually, the civilisations meet each other through different ways. The migrations, the telecommunication, the globalisation of the common market and the internet made the world smaller. I’m even doubtful whether we are able today to discuss the concept of the cradle of civilisations. Now, the world has entered into an epoch where the post modernism reigns. The post modernism seeming like a confusion means the coexistence of the differences. The modernism was the separation of the net colors. For example, left-right, black-white, thought-belief etc...However the post modernism is the mosaic of the real fact. When this mosaic is closely observed looks a bit confused but has a special meaning when looked from a distance. It will take time to understand this concept. Let me give you an example. You know the famous cue in Hamlet:"To be or not to be, this is the problem." This is the problem of the modernism. As the Anatolia was a cradle of civilisations, the child, in other words, the Mediterranean civilisation has been born healthy. It’s warrior but strong. However, the child born from the cradle created today by the internet and the global village, in other words, the post modern civilisation is a little unhealthy. So we need actually an incubator instead of a cradle. Speaking frankly, the religious leaders convened here show the unique reality. This is the proof that the various religions and thoughts in Anatolia actually live in an atmosphere of mutual respect and peace. So, I ask myself again whether the Anatolia is a cradle of civilisations or not; not just a Mediterranean civilisation but also the civilisation of tolerance, acceptance, brotherhood and friendship.... It |