Turkey’s Syriacs Lay Out Vision for New Constitution

A restored Syrian Orthodox Church in Turkey (2010) 3/3/2012 In an unprecedented move, the political and community representatives of the Syriac Christians visited parliament this week to express their demands for a new civil constitution. The delegation, consisting of representatives of the European Syriac Union (ESU), Federation of Syriac Associations in Turkey, Mezo-Der and the Federation of Syriac People in Germany (HSA), outlined the problems and concerns facing the ancient Syriac community to the Constitutional Conciliation Committee on Monday (February 27th). “As Syriac community representatives, we emphasised that in the new constitution there should be no reference to an ideological definition of citizenship, but rather all people subject to the country by the bonds of the constitution should be considered as citizens of the Turkish Republic,” Tuma Celik, the representative of Turkey within the ESU, told SES Türkiye