Turkish Schools Describe Christians as Traitors in High-School Textbook

According to a Report from the newspaper "Radikal" [Monday] Christians were described in a Turkish high-school textbook as traitors to the country.

Istanbul (kath.net/KNA)Representatives of the Syrian-Orthodox Christians in Turkey have criticized a portrayal of their faith communities in a state schoolbook. According to a report from the newspaper "Radikal" [Monday], the Christians were described as traitors to the country in a high-school textbook, as they were supposed to have left Turkey to the West "to become political and religious tools of those countries". Representatives of the Syrian-Orthodox Christians complained in the report, that the antagonism which exists against the Christian minority will be deepened still further.

In past decades many Syrian-Orthodox Christians have fled their homeland in south east Anatolia, because have been caught in a war between the Turkish state and the Kurdish PKK Rebels. Most of these emigrants settled in Germany and in Switzerland. In recent times some have returned to their old villages in the area of the ancient Monastery of Mor Gabriel in the Province of Mardin in south eastern Turkey.

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