Die Situation der Minderheiten in der Türkei - Eine kritische Bestandsaufnahme
The Situation of Minorities in Turkey – a Critical Review

Summary/Abstract: The article provides a critical review of the current situation of minorities in Turkey and analyses the background of the political and social exclusion and discrimination of minority groups. The minority rules in the Treaty of Lausanne from 1923 are examined, thus contributing to understand the characteristics and historical roots of the legal status of minorities in Turkey. The consequences of the specific forms of Turkish nationalism and laicism on the interpretation of the term “minority” are explained. In contrast to the European understanding of minorities which includes religious, ethnic and linguistic groups, the Turkish state only recognizes non- Muslim minorities. In practice – apart from some non-Muslim minorities, such as the Syrian Orthodox Christians – the Turkish state only identifies Greek and Armenian Orthodox Christians and Jews as being “minorities” and grants them a very limited number of rights. As a consequence, members of minority groups in Turkey still face discrimination in many ways even today. After a phase of encouraging reforms when the AKP came to power in 2002, the status of minorities in Turkey still remains extremely unsatisfactory and there are no signs of significant or sustainable improvements of those rights. The present state of affairs is described in detail in form of specific examples and includes a detailed description of those restricted rights at the end of the article.

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