Petition Campaign to Save Historic Syriac Orthodox Monastery in Mardin

12/7/2012 Some 300 writers, academics and artists in have joined a petition campaign to protest a verdict by the Turkish Supreme Court of Appeals to nationalize the estates of the Mor Gabriel Monastery (Mardin), the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world, dating back to 397 AD. Established in 397 A.D., the Mor Gabriel Monastery bears exceptional significance for Syriacs, as it stands on par with Muslims’ “Al Aqsa Mosque” for the Syriac community, trains half of all their clergy and has enabled the survival of the Syriac language, according to Tuma Özdemir, the head of the Mesopotamia Culture Association.