Syriac Orthodox Monastery Loses Lands Under Turkish Court Ruling

The highest Turkish court of appeals has upheld illegal claims on the lands of St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin by neighboring Kurdish Muslim villages, ignoring the Monastery's 1,600-year history by claiming that it was built on the site of a mosque (!) and that its lands actually belong to the nearby Kurds. The Monastery is expected to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. More here. H/t to Ad Orientem.

Suryoyo Return to Celebrate Pascha in SE Turkey

A number of Syriac Orthodox Christians from the Suryoyo Diaspora returned to southeastern Turkey this year to celebrate Pascha in their ancestral homeland. The Paschal celebrations, which were held at St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin, were encouraged by the mayor of the nearby city of Mardin. More here.

Syriac Orthodox Patriarch Meets with Turkish PM

Patriarch Moran Mor Ignatius Zakka I (Iwas) of Antioch and several metropolitans of the Syriac Orthodox Church met yesterday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, Turkey, to discuss the Turkish government's theft of land from St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin. During the meeting Prime Minister Erdogan committed himself to finding a way to have the lands recently appropriated from the Monastery returned to it. More here.

Turkish Supreme Court Rules Against Mor Gabriel

The Turkish Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal of Dayro d'Mor Gabriel in Tur Abdin, one of the oldest surviving monastic communities of the Syriac Orthodox Church in the world. More here and here.

Update on St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin, Turkey

I misspoke in my last posting - the Syriac Orthodox Church in Turkey is still in the courts over the ownership of the lands of St. Gabriel's Monastery in Tur Abdin, with six cases having been brought against the monastery by either the Turkish government or local Kurdish villages. This appears to be in response to a recent increase in the number of ethnic Syrians returning to the area, which used to have a substantial Syriac Orthodox minority (as well as large Armenian and Antiochian Orthodox minorities) and was the seat of the Syriac Orthodox patriarch from 1160 till 1932. A recent press release on the situation can be found here.