By Dr. Otmar Oehring, head of the human rights office of Missio
There are now two major questions in the struggle for full religious freedom in Turkey, Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic charity Missio http://www.missio-aachen.de/menschen-kulturen/themen/menschenrechte notes. Firstly, will the controversial Foundations Law be adopted, and if so in what form? Secondly, will the Turkish authorities move towards full religious freedom after a recent momentous ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg? The ECHR did not accept the Turkish state's argumentation over the seizure of non-Muslim minorities' property, and even the Turkish judge at the Court had no objections to the ruling. In this personal commentary for Forum 18 News Service http://www.forum18.org, Dr Oehring suggests that, as Turkish accession negotiations with the European Union have gone quiet, the ECHR may now be the best route for Turkey's religious minorities to assert their rights."
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