Rite and ReasonAs the pope begins a four-day visit to Turkey tomorrow, attention is likely to focus more on his attitude to Islam and the country's application to join the EU than on the plight of Christian minorities there, writes Sarah MacDonald
A few weeks ago, employees of Diyanet, the Turkish state body for Muslim worship, called for the pontiff to be arrested on his arrival in the country, accusing him of violating Turkish laws upholding freedom of belief and thought and of "insulting" Islam and the Prophet Mohammed in his Regensburg address last September.
Some Turkish newspapers have suggested that the state has downgraded its welcome, while the authorities have underlined that protests against the pontiff will be permitted.
No doubt the Vatican is relieved to hear that security has been stepped up.
The stabbing of Fr Pierre Brunissen in Istanbul last July was the third attack on a Catholic cleric in the country this year. There are just 32,000 Roman Catholics in Turkey.
Sadly, coverage of this historic visit - the first of Pope Benedict's pontificate to a Muslim country - looks likely to focus on his purported "bias" against Islam and Turkey. As a result, the issue of Turkey's discrimination against its non-Muslim minorities, specifically Christians (who comprise roughly 1 per cent of the population), is likely to be ignored, though it warranted criticism in the EU's recent progress report on this country of almost 70 million.
The invitation to Pope Benedict to come to Turkey was extended by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, the leader of Turkey's Greek Orthodox Church and spiritual leader of more than 250 million Christians worldwide.
The Turkish government refuses to acknowledge his ecumenical authority and bans the use of his title. His flock, which has a 1,500-year-old presence in Istanbul, is still viewed with deep suspicion.
The French press agency AFP in July 2003 claimed Turkey was "dragging its heels on reforms for its Christian minority", including basic rights such as training their own clergy or providing an independent religious education. A prime example is the state's closure of the Greek Orthodox seminary of Halki in 1971.
Religious communities other than Sunni Muslims cannot legally train new clergy. The ecumenical patriarch's requests to have the seminary re-opened have been continually rebuffed.
A 2004 US state department report noted that the "Greek and Armenian Orthodox communities have lost property to the government in the past and continue to battle against more losses, because current laws allow the state agency, Vakiflar, to assume direct administration of expropriate properties that fall into disuse when the local non-Muslim community dwindles".
If the number of Christians in Turkey continues to "dwindle" (down from 207,000 in the 1965 census to 140,000 in the 1995 census), then the fate of many historically significant churches looks increasingly likely to be at the mercy of the state.
When I visited Anatolia's Tur Abdin region last year, members of the Syriac Orthodox Church complained bitterly at the crisis which these strictures on seminary formation were imposing.
This ancient community still use a form of Aramaic dating from the time of Jesus in their liturgy, while their monasteries are some of the oldest in the world.
The Mar Gabriel monastery was founded in AD 397. However, with no new priests being trained, they are unable to replace priests who die.
There were just two monks left in the monastery last year.
The conflict in the region between the Kurds and Ankara has driven thousands of Syriac Christians abroad over the past two decades.
One of the most tragic examples of Turkey's disregard for its rich and diverse religious tapestry is its neglect of Armenian monuments such as the ancient Monastery of the Seven Churches of Varagavank, near the city of Van.
Despite offers to fund restoration work from abroad, a permit has not been granted. And so each year its wonderful mosaics fall into a greater state of dilapidation.
Elsewhere, the wilful destruction of Armenian material has been documented. Harassment of academics who attempt to collate information on Armenian material has prompted some to question whether Turkey has a policy of cultural and historical amnesia towards the Armenians.
This time last year, writer and Nobel laureate Orhan Pamuk was facing a possible jail sentence under Article 301 for having allegedly "insulted Turkishness" by his acknowledgement in an interview of the 1915-17 genocide in which up to 1.25 million Armenians lost their lives.
Perhaps the Bill passed by the lower house of the French parliament last month, making it a crime to deny the genocide, is an attempt to defy this policy of censorship and "forgetting".
It is a contentious move which may kindle even stronger displays of Turkish nationalism, while undermining those in Ankara pushing a pro-EU reform agenda. It is certainly unlikely to stem the destruction of Anatolia's ancient Christian churches.
For the Syriac Christians, their hope, as one of their priests explained to me, lies in EU membership, which they believe would force Turkey to adhere to European democratic standards of tolerance and respect for its minorities.
• Sarah MacDonald is editor ofThe Word magazine.