[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 118 (Thursday, July 17, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6944-S6945]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         SUBMITTED RESOLUTIONS

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 SENATE RESOLUTION 615--URGING THE GOVERNMENT OF TURKEY TO RESPECT THE 
  RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOMS OF THE ECUMENICAL PATRIARCHATE OF THE 
                       ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHURCH

  Mr. MENENDEZ (for himself, Ms. Snowe, Mr. Biden, and Mr. Cardin) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
on the Judiciary:

                              S. Res. 615

       Whereas the Government of Turkey has sought membership in 
     the European Union and maintains strong bilateral relations 
     with the United States Government;
       Whereas the accession of Turkey to the European Union will 
     depend on its adherence

[[Page S6945]]

     to the Copenhagen criteria that require candidate countries 
     to have achieved stability of governmental institutions that 
     guarantee human rights and that respect and protect 
     minorities, including religious minorities such as Orthodox 
     Christians;
       Whereas, on August 2, 2007, European Union Enlargement 
     Commissioner Olli Rehn indicated that Turkey must achieve 
     ``concrete results in areas of fundamental freedoms such as . 
     . . religious freedom'';
       Whereas the Ecumenical Patriarchate and its Sacred See is 
     the spiritual head for tens of millions, a valuable place of 
     great historic significance to hundreds of millions where 
     much of the New Testament and sacred creeds, including the 
     Nicene Creed, were codified, and as the head of the largest 
     Christian Church headquartered in a majority Muslim country, 
     a critical link between Christians and Muslims;
       Whereas the United States was founded on the concept of 
     religious freedom and has maintained its support for such 
     freedom throughout its history;
       Whereas the practice of religious freedom of millions of 
     Orthodox Christians in the United States is dependent on the 
     religious freedom of the spiritual head of their faith;
       Whereas the United States Government has expressed its 
     emphatic support for full religious freedom for the 
     Ecumenical Patriarchate through numerous statements by both 
     Democratic and Republican Presidents, in letters signed by 
     the extraordinary number of 73 of 100 United States Senators 
     and 42 of 50 members of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the 
     House of Representatives, and in reports of the Department of 
     State, the Helsinki Commission, and other government 
     agencies;
       Whereas Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew gathered 
     international religious leaders soon after the September 11, 
     2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, and produced 
     the first condemnation of the attacks as ``anti-religious'';
       Whereas the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew was awarded 
     the Congressional Gold Medal, the highest civilian award 
     bestowed by Congress;
       Whereas the international community places particular 
     importance on safeguarding and promoting religious freedom as 
     is expressed in the creation of a Special Rapporteur on 
     Freedom of Religion or Belief in the Office of the High 
     Commissioner for Human Rights of the United Nations, in the 
     ``Declaration of Principles Guiding Relations between 
     Participating States'' principle VII, paragraph I of the 
     Helsinki Commission, and in most highly regarded 
     international organizations;
       Whereas the Government of Turkey does not recognize the 
     Ecumenical Patriarch as ecumenical, interferes with the 
     process of selecting the Ecumenical Patriarch by requiring 
     that the Patriarch be a citizen of Turkey, thereby 
     restricting candidates due to the gradual disappearance of 
     eligible Orthodox Christians who are citizens of Turkey; and
       Whereas the Government of Turkey has confiscated without 
     compensation significant quantities of property belonging to 
     the Ecumenical Patriarchate and closed its seminary at Halki: 
     Now, therefore, be it
         Resolved, That the Senate--
         (1) expresses its view that the Government of Turkey 
     should move expeditiously to meet the criteria set forth by 
     the European Council in Copenhagen;
         (2) calls on the European Union to focus on the 
     elimination of all forms of discrimination in Turkey, 
     particularly with regard to the Ecumenical Patriarchate, 
     while continuing accession negotiations;
         (3) calls on the Government of Turkey to remove an 
     obstacle in its relations with the United States Government 
     by taking positive steps to provide full religious freedom 
     for the Ecumenical Patriarchate; and
         (4) calls on the Government of Turkey to immediately--
         (A) recognize the right to the title of ``Ecumenical 
     Patriarch'';
         (B) grant the Ecumenical Patriarch appropriate 
     international recognition and ecclesiastic succession;
         (C) grant the Ecumenical Patriarch the right to train 
     clergy of all nationalities, not just Turkish nationals; and
         (D) respect property rights and human rights of the 
     Ecumenical Patriarchate.

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