THE DAILY BLADE: What The Pope Really Said In Turkey
When news reports suggested that Pope Benedict XVI had given his blessing to Turkey joining the European Union, The Stiletto was stunned at this apparent 180 - while still Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, he was adamant that admitting Turkey into the EU would be "a grave error... against the tide of history." It turns out that the pontiff has not reconsidered his previous position at all.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan either willfully misinterpreted the pope’s highly nuanced statements on the matter, or heard only what he wanted to hear. According to Erdogan, the pope said: "You know we don’t have a political role, but we wish for Turkey’s entry into the EU." The New York Times reports that rather than confirming Erdogan’s version of the pontiff’s remarks, The Vatican swiftly issued a clarification:
[T]he pope’s spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, released a brief statement repeating that the Vatican has "neither the power nor the specific political task" of getting Turkey admitted to the European Union.
But Father Lombardi said the Vatican "views positively and encourages the road of dialogue and of moving toward integration of Turkey in Europe on the basis of common values and principles."
On the third day of his papal visit, Benedict XVI "put the brakes on his charm offensive … stressing Europe's "Christian roots" and taking a strong stand on religious freedoms and minority rights," reports wire service Agence France Presse. Furthermore, in a joint declaration with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, he said respect for religious freedom must be a criterion for membership in the EU. The declaration also rejected killing in G-d's name, condemned terrorism and violence in the Holy Land.
So what "tides of history" make Turkey’s entry into the EU problematic? The Associated Press explains:
Turkish armies captured the Byzantine capital Constantinople — now Istanbul — in 1453 to begin a steady decline for Christians, who had maintained communities in Asia Minor since the time of the Apostles.
As the Ottoman Empire collapsed in the early 20th century, large numbers of Armenian Christians perished in mass expulsions and fighting. Turkey vehemently denies that it committed genocide against Armenians, though many nations have classified the World War I-era killings as such.
Later, in the 1920s, Turkey and Greece carried out a massive population exchange under the treaty that established modern Turkey, with hundreds of thousands of Greek Orthodox sent to Greece and smaller numbers of Muslims going the other way.
And then there’s the history of the Armenian Apostolic Church, one of the oldest Christian denominations. Christ’s teachings were introduced to Armenia in the 1st century by the Apostles Bartholomew and Thaddeus, and Armenia adopted Christianity as its official religion in 301 AD – the first nation to do so. The pope could not explicitly acknowledge the Armenian Genocide while on Turkish soil because to do so is prohibited under Turkey’s Articles 301 and 305 – and he would not have risked triggering a new round of anti-Catholic violence in which other priests could have been murdered. However, mindful that this ancient Christian community was nearly annihilated by the Ottomans, the pontiff would not be inclined to absolve Turkey of its obligation to history by embracing its EU ambitions without any strings attached.
EU members – France, in particular - made it clear that acknowledging the Armenian Genocide is a key component in Turkey’s admission, along with freedom of speech and freedom of worship. Nothing Pope Benedict XVI said contradicts these preconditions – Erdogan’s faulty hearing notwithstanding.
Update:
Mazel Tov!
Dayna Klein, 17 weeks pregnant in July when Naveed Afzal Haq ran into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and began shooting, has given birth to a boy. The Seattle Times reports that the baby, who weighed in at five pounds and 12 ounces, is named Charley Paz, which means "peace" in Spanish; the name is meant to honor Klein’s colleague, Pamela Waechter, who was killed in the rampage. King County Prosecutor Norm Maleng is still considering whether his office will seek the death penalty in this case.
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