ANKARA. The Turkish judiciary sentenced the Assyrian monk Sefer (Aho) Bilecen to two years and one month in prison, found guilty of having provided “aid to a terrorist organization”. He had ended up in the bar on charges of terrorism for having given a piece of bread to two people who had presented themselves at the gates of the monastery; according to the prosecutor of the Mardin High Criminal Court, they were members of the PKK outlaw movement. The religious, absent from the courtroom, has always declared himself innocent, rejecting all accusations. Better known as “Father Aho”, the caretaker of the old Syriac Orthodox monastery of Mor Yakup (St. Jacob, abandoned after the 1915 genocide and restored by the same cleric) was arrested on 9 January 2020, but released four days later thanks to pressure of public opinion. According to the indictment, the priest is guilty of “belonging to a terrorist organization”, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), considered an outlaw by Ankara. The priest was arrested on the basis of the secret testimony of a deserter and former member of the PKK, who allegedly reported him to the Turkish authorities.
Father Aho always insisted that he did not know the people who came to see him to ask for food, that he did not know that they were “members of the PKK” and that he helped them out of “Christian charity”. At today’s hearing, banned to journalists like the previous ones, the monk Aho was sentenced by the judges to two years and one month in prison for “helping a terrorist organization”. The condemnation comes in a growing internal context of violations and abuses against the Christian minority. Recently, the authorities put a centuries-old Armenian church up for sale on the internet, the latest in a series of episodes showing the trading of religious and cultural heritage: the barbecue in the historic Armenian church of Sourp Asdvadzadzi and the conversions of ancient Christian basilicas into mosques then museums at the beginning of the 20th century under Ataturk – of Santa Sofia and Chora. Controversial decisions in the context of the neo-nationalist policy imprinted by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, also played on the notes of religious fundamentalism, to hide the economic crisis, the coronavirus emergency and maintain power. In both buildings, Islamic authorities have covered images of Jesus, frescoes and icons that reveal the Christian roots with a white curtain.
The sentence is “very surprising”; since November, in fact, an acquittal had been thought of “because the fact does not exist”. This is what Msgr. Paolo Bizzeti, apostolic vicar of Anatolia and president of the national Caritas, commenting on the sentence of 7 April against the religious better known with the nickname of “Father Aho”. “There was no concrete hypothesis of crime – continues the prelate – also because it is a millenary tradition of monasteries to give bread and water to those who knock on the door”. «For Christian monasteries – says Monsignor Bizzeti – it is a millenary tradition to guarantee food and drink to those who knock on doors, without making distinctions between people based on their faith or ethnic group. Abuna Aho acted in total good faith, according to Christian tradition, so much so that she did not even consider it necessary to hire a lawyer to defend her during the trial. He repeated several times to the magistrates that he “gave to anyone, as I always do” because it is a gesture of charity that is not denied to anyone ». The story arouses concern for the contours within which it originated and developed; however, the vicar of Anatolia invites you to remain calm and “first of all read the reasons for the sentence as soon as it is published, with a view to maximum transparency”.
Recently, activist groups and movements have promoted signature campaigns for the monk’s release, which could be relaunched in these hours after the sentence. In this regard, the prelate stresses that “it is right to focus attention on the matter, but we must also be careful not to exploit it and we must first know the reasons that determined the judges’ verdict”. The news, continues Monsignor Bizzeti, was relaunched by the Turkish media and, in the context of a “multicultural nation, everyone gave their own reading and commentary”. To affirm that there are political or faith issues behind the verdict is “premature”, but we cannot deny worrying signs such as the same story of the president of the EU Commission Ursula von der Leyen. In the so-called «Sofa-gate» and in these latest events, the bishop emphasizes, «the problem is not so much Turkey, but a Europe unable to ask for an adequate protocol. Moreover, the issue of female violence does not spare even the Western nations, where there are many statements of principle, but in practice the problem is wider ».