Rite and Reason: Many Turks feel their country is denied its rightful place in Europe, writes Rev Patrick Comerford
The European project is weathering one of its greatest crises, with the future of the European constitution still in doubt. Major question marks hang over what we mean when it comes to defining a shared European identity.
Admittedly, the reasons for the No vote in France and the Netherlands last May were complex and multi-layered, but there is no doubt that a major factor was prejudiced fears about the prospect of Turkey joining the EU. In the Netherlands, many opponents of the constitution were shameless in promoting prejudice against the Muslim minority.
The present crisis means many Muslims now hear Europeans saying Islam has no place in European culture and many Turks feel once again that their country is being denied its rightful place in European society.
Both fallacies need to be challenged by European Christians: Islam has always been a part of the European story and Turkey has always had a pivotal place in European culture and identity.
It is unimaginable today to question Spain's place in Europe in the way it is possible to challenge Turkey's right to be accepted as a European nation. Yet Spain was under Muslim rule for a greater span of time than modern Turkey has had Muslim-dominated governments, while Byzantium was one of the principal centres of Christianity for more centuries than Spain has been regarded as a Christian society.
Without Muslim architects, philosophers, scientists and mathematicians, medieval Europe would have left us with a very depleted cultural heritage.
Turkey has always been an integral part of the European enterprise. Today, it is often claimed, there are more classical, Hellenistic and Byzantine sites in the modern Turkish state than in neighbouring Greece.
In the classical world, Asia was never perceived as a culture or continent apart. Our modern concept of a Europe contained within a limited land mass only begins to take shape in the eighth century.
But for centuries before, the land mass we now know as Asia Minor was as much part of our civilisation and culture as the areas now contained in Greece and Italy.
The city of Ephesus was designated the capital of Asia during the Roman imperial period. As Europe's greatest centre of trade, finance and industry, Ephesus at its height had a population of 200,000 people - Paris and London would not grow to this size until after the 15th century.
Saint John's Gospel and the Book of Revelation are foundational works of European literature.
The Book of Revelation was written in a cave on the Greek island of Patmos, but was addressed to seven churches that stood in present-day Turkey: Ephesus (Efes), Smyrna (Izmir), Pergamon (Bergama), Thyateira (Akhisar), Sardis (Sartmustafa), Philadelphia (Alasehir) and Laodicea (Eskihisar).
The first great councils of the church, at which the doctrines of Christianity were defined, were held in present-day Turkey: Nicaea, Constantinople, Chalcedon and Ephesus. And the region was home to the great patristic figures, including the Cappadocian fathers, Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa.
Today, the Christian minorities of Turkey still suffer under discrimination and adverse social conditions. Many politicians want to strip the Patriarch of Constantinople of his international precedence in the Orthodox churches, reducing him to being the local bishop of a tiny, beleaguered and besieged diocese.
The Greek Orthodox school of theology on Halki was forced to close and has been refused permission to reopen. Life has been made so difficult for the Greeks on the island of Imvros (Gokceada) that only 200 Greeks are left there today, while fewer than 100 elderly Orthodox remain on neighbouring Tenedos (Bozcaada).
It is a sad indictment of the churches in Ireland that we have not been vocal enough on the plight of the Gama workers or the discrimination faced by many Muslim immigrants.
But the best way to defend those rights, and the rights of Christians in Turkey, is to celebrate and affirm Turkey's place in Europe, to acknowledge Turkey's place in our Christian and European heritage and to provide those living in Turkey today with all the legal, civil and humanitarian rights that come with full membership of the European Union.
Rev Patrick Comerford is a Church of Ireland priest and southern regional co-ordinator of the Church Mission Society Ireland. Contact: theology@ireland.com