Muslim leaders are trying to destroy it, and have sued the monastery for alleged proselytism. A spiritual and cultural center for the Syriac Orthodox, it still uses ancient Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus. During the 1960's, at least 130,000 Syriacs lived in Tur Abdin. Today, there are only 3,000. The minority community hopes that the European Union will come to its defense with an appeal to Ankara.
The new sensitivity is the result of the death of Hrant Dink, the journalist killed two years ago. People connected to his murder are also part of the trial involving Ergenekon, the clandestine ultranationalist group accused of planning a state coup.
For many pilgrims in Turkey, the Pauline Year is an opportunity to find in Tarsus, Antioch, and Ephesus the stones of an ancient past, and the laborious present of a Christian community quenched to a glimmer and marginalized by secularism and by Islam. But they are also a small seed, where it is possible to discover the very mission of St. Paul, unity and charity.
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