00                       SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 28                                                                    
01 Relating to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and religious rights.                                                           
02 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
03       WHEREAS the Ecumenical Patriarchate, located in modern-day Istanbul, formerly                                   
04 known as Constantinople, in the Republic of Turkey, is the Sacred See that presides over a                              
05 community of self-governing churches of the Orthodox Christian world; and                                               
06       WHEREAS the See is led by Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, who is the 269th                                    
07 direct successor of the Apostle Andrew and who holds titular primacy as primus inter pares,                             
08 "first among equals," in the community of Orthodox Churches worldwide; the Orthodox                                     
09 Church has been in existence for nearly 2,000 years and numbers approximately 300,000,000                               
10 members around the world, with more than 2,000,000 members in the United States; and                                    
11       WHEREAS the government of Turkey refuses to recognize the international status                                  
12 and the rights and religious freedoms of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, the head of the Greek                             
13 Orthodox Church, which is a minority religion in Turkey; and                                                            
14       WHEREAS the government of Turkey and Turkish prime ministers have limited the                                   
15 candidates available to the Holy Synod for selection as the Ecumenical Patriarch to Turkish                             
16 nationals who have performed mandatory military service in the Turkish armed forces, and                                
01 they continue to insist that any new spiritual head of Orthodox Christians, including Orthodox                          
02 Christians in Alaska and throughout the United States, be approved by them; because of                                  
03 selective enforcement of laws and regulations, the once large eligible community of Turkish                             
04 citizens of the Orthodox faith has declined to only approximately 2,500 persons, most of                                
05 whom are elderly; and                                                                                                   
06       WHEREAS, before its closure, the Theological School of Halki was the only                                       
07 educational institution for Orthodox Christianity in Turkey; the school was closed in 1971 by                           
08 Turkish authorities under a law requiring that higher education in religion and minority                                
09 training be controlled by the state; and                                                                                
10       WHEREAS the United States Congress passed a resolution expressing its sentiment                                 
11 that the Theological School of Halki in the Republic of Turkey should be reopened in order to                           
12 promote religious freedom; and                                                                                          
13       WHEREAS the government of Turkey has reneged on its agreement to reopen the                                     
14 Theological School of Halki, thus impeding training for Orthodox Christian clergy within its                            
15 borders; and                                                                                                            
16       WHEREAS, in recent years, the government of Turkey has, in violation of the                                     
17 inalienable rights of all peoples, confiscated more than 90 percent of the properties of the                            
18 Ecumenical Patriarchate and placed a 42 percent tax, retroactive to 1999, on the nonprofit                              
19 Balukli Hospital, which is run by the Ecumenical Patriarchate; and                                                      
20       WHEREAS the dissolution of the spiritual head of Orthodox Christian churches in                                 
21 the coming decades is inevitable if Turkey continues its policy of interference in religious                            
22 matters, despite the government's stated policy of being purely secular in its dealings; and                            
23       WHEREAS all Christians in our state, in the United States, and around the world                                 
24 stand to lose this nearly 2,000-year-old Sacred See, where the text of the New Testament was                            
25 codified, the canonical structure of the Christian church was established, and the Nicene                               
26 Creed was written and first pronounced; the disappearance of the Ecumenical Patriarchate                                
27 would mean the loss of a crucial link between Christians and their religious history, sacred                            
28 texts, and religious forebears; and                                                                                     
29       WHEREAS the disappearance of this See would also mean the end of a crucial link                                 
30 between Christians and the Muslim world; at a time when individuals hostile to the United                               
31 States are attempting to create conflict between Christians and Muslims, the continuing                                 
01 presence of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey is a powerful testament to the coexistence                            
02 of these two faiths in Istanbul since 1453; and                                                                         
03       WHEREAS, following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on America, the                                    
04 spiritual leader of Orthodox Christians, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, gathered                                     
05 international religious leaders and produced the first statement signed by Muslim leaders that                          
06 condemned the attacks as "anti-religious"; and                                                                          
07       WHEREAS the importance of Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to the United                                        
08 States is reflected in the record number of Congressional cosponsors of the measure that                                
09 bestowed on him America's highest civilian award, the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor--                               
10 an award also given to George Washington, Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela, Mother                                     
11 Teresa, and Pope John Paul II; and                                                                                      
12       WHEREAS the European Union, a group of nations with a common goal of                                            
13 promoting peace and the well-being of its peoples, began accession negotiations with Turkey                             
14 on October 3, 2005; and                                                                                                 
15       WHEREAS the European Union defined membership criteria for accession to the                                     
16 European Union at the Copenhagen European Council in 1993, obligating candidate countries                               
17 to have achieved certain levels of reform, including stability of institutions guaranteeing                             
18 democracy, adherence to the rule of law, and respect for and protection of minorities and                               
19 human rights; and                                                                                                       
20       WHEREAS the Treaty of Amsterdam, which came into effect in 1999, affirms that                                   
21 the European Union is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human                                
22 rights and fundamental freedoms, and the rule of law; Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty                                
23 enables the European Council to take appropriate action to combat discrimination based on                               
24 religion or belief; and                                                                                                 
25       WHEREAS Turkey's current treatment of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is inconsistent                               
26 with the membership conditions and goals of the European Union; and                                                     
27       WHEREAS the United States has long been a beacon of hope for vulnerable and                                     
28 disenfranchised people around the world, and the state has long valued and defended the                                 
29 principles of democracy, individual liberty, freedom of speech, and freedom of religion; as                             
30 citizens of conscience of this great land, we bear both the responsibility and the honor to raise                       
31 our voices against injustice on behalf of those unable to speak for themselves;                                         
01       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature supports the Ecumenical                                        
02 Patriarchate and urges the United States, the European Union, and the United Nations, as                                
03 leaders of the international community, to encourage the government of Turkey to end its                                
04 discrimination against the Ecumenical Patriarchate, one of the oldest Christian institutions in                         
05 the world; and be it                                                                                                    
06       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the Governor to call                                   
07 on the government of Turkey to eliminate all forms of discrimination based on religion and to                           
08 immediately grant the Ecumenical Patriarchate appropriate international recognition and the                             
09 right to train clergy of all nationalities; and be it                                                                   
10       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature calls on the government of                                   
11 Turkey to pledge to uphold and safeguard religious rights without compromise.                                           
12       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Namik Tan, Ambassador of                               
13 the Republic of Turkey; the Honorable Herman Van Rompuy, President of the European                                      
14 Union; the Honorable Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations; the Honorable                                
15 Barack Obama, President of the United States; the Honorable James F. Jeffery, United States                             
16 Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the                                          
17 Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative,                                 
18 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.