Turkey’s Armenians Patriarch Sahak II, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the Syriac Orthodox Church Spiritual Leader Mor Philixinos Yusuf Cetin and Turkey’s Jewish Chief Rabbi Isak Haleva, attended the “Human Rights Action Plan Introductory Meeting” took place in Ankara.
The Human Rights Action Plan, which has been worked on for a long time, has been announced. Speaking at the Human Rights Action Plan Introduction Meeting held at the Presidential Complex, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan shared the details of the document, which includes 9 goals, 50 goals and 393 activities, with the public.
Expressing that the Action Plan was prepared to be implemented in a two-year period, Erdogan said, “The responsible and relevant organizations for each activity specified in the Action Plan and the calendar for the time frame foreseen for these activities will be presented to the public within two weeks.” Expressing that one of the aims of the Action Plan is “the protection and development of freedom of expression, organization and religion”, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pointed out that these three areas of freedom are among the subjects they have made the most arrangements and strived to strengthen. Stating that they ensure that public and private sector employees and students, regardless of their religion, are considered on leave during their religious holidays, Erdogan said that they will rearrange the Foundations Regulation on the establishment and election of non-Muslim community foundations board of directors.
Emphasizing that they put forward a strong will to fight against discrimination and hate crime in order to maintain and develop the understanding of pluralism based on the common history, culture and civilization of the nation, President Erdoğan said, “We are preparing investigation guides for hate crimes, we are strengthening the infrastructure to make the statistics and data collection operations in a more healthy way” he said.
The statement made on the Facebook page of the Patriarchate regarding the issue is as follows;
His beautitude the Patriarch Sahak II. went to Ankara by air on Tuesday, March 2, 2021, at 10:00, responding to a special invitation from the Presidency. His Beatitude the Patriarch was accompanied by the Chairman of Surp Pırgiç Armenian Hospital Foundation Bedros Şirinoğlu and Father Şirvan Mürzyan.
The meeting titled “Human Rights Action Plan Introductory Meeting” started at 13:30 at Beştepe National Congress and Culture Center. During the meeting, Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan has introduced a plan of action with a speech. The meeting was attended by ministers, representatives of political parties, spiritual leaders from minority communities and their representatives, the United Nations (UN), European Union (EU) and heads of non-governmental organizations, academics, lawyers and journalists from the European Human Rights Court (ECHR) in addition to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Parliament) President Mustafa Şentop.
During his speech, Mr. President stated that this plan, which is shaped on 11 basic principles, includes 9 goals, 50 goals and 393 activities, and stated that 2 years are envisaged for the project to be fully implemented. Mentioning the minority communities, Mr. President stated that a regulation will also be made for the regulations regarding the elections of the board of directors of minority foundations.
His Beatitude the Patriarch will return to Istanbul in the evening.
