A Syrian Monk Gets Prison Term for Giving Bread...
Eliseo Mercado
Syrian Orthodox monk in Turkey gets prison sentence for offering bread
The Mardin Criminal Court found Syrian Orthodox monk Sefer Bileçen guilty of complicity with terrorist organizations as the people he helped were members of the outlawed Kurdish Workers' Party
By La Croix International staff | Turkey
A Turkish court has sentenced Syrian Orthodox monk to 25 months in prison on terrorism charges after he gave a piece of bread to two people who had turned up at the gates of his monastery.The Mardin Criminal Court found Syrian Orthodox monk Sefer Bileçen guilty of complicity with terrorist organizations and activities as the people he helped were members of the Kurdish Workers' Party (PKK) that the Ankara government classifies as a terrorist organization.
The monk is custodian of the old Syrian Orthodox monastery of Mor Yakup (St Jacob) in Nusaybin (formerly Nisibi, now part of the Turkish province of Mardin).He was arrested on January 9, 2020 along with two other people, accused of having offered help and cover to members of the People's Defense Forces (HPG), the military arm of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).
The accusation, based mainly on images collected by drones used by the Turkish intelligence services to monitor the life of the monastery from above, attributes to the monk the responsibility of receiving HPG militiamen in the monastery for a few days at the end of September of 2018.On January 16, 2020, the monk had been authorized to leave prison pending trial, with the obligation not to leave his residence.
During the trial, as reported by Agenzia Fides, several testimonies confirmed that the alleged "complicity" contested by the Turkish authorities to the Syrian Orthodox monk consisted in simply offering food and drink to people who said they were hungry and thirsty.An HPG militiaman arrested in September 2019 by Turkish security forces had also confessed to having visited the Mor Yakup Monastery several times just to eat, drink and refresh.
Sefer Bileçen, in the testimony made public through his lawyers, confirmed that he had given food and water to the militiamen as a pure sign of monastic hospitality, reserved for anyone in need, without imagining that the people welcomed were members of HPG."I will give food and water to anyone who comes to my door", Father Sefer had said during his statement. "I have to do it" he added "because of my spiritual and philosophical beliefs. And I cannot lie, because I am a monk and a priest".
The court decision comes amid abuses against the Christian minority and reflects Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's "nationalism and Islam" policy.
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