A/55/280/Add.1 In addition, they have on a number of occasions been denied the right to teach the Syriac religion, even within their churches and monasteries, while their demands for exemption from religious instruction in the public schools are often ignored. All of these obstacles and restrictions can be explained essentially by the policy of Turkization and by the failure to recognize the Assyro-Chaldeans as a distinct religious and cultural community. To these factors must be added the impact of the armed conflict between the Turkish authorities and Kurdish insurrectionists that has placed the Assyro-Chaldeans in a climate of constant fear from acts of terrorism (assault, robbery, assassination, abduction, forced conversion to Islam, etc.) and has provoked their massive departure from southeastern Turkey. It is also true that this community is rejected by society and by the local authorities, who are generally intolerant of any minority that does not conform to the stereotyped imperatives of the Turkization policy (i.e. to be Turkish by ethnic origin and to be Muslim by religion). This situation is at its worst in eastern Turkey, but it is also reflected in Istanbul, where most Assyro-Chaldeans migrate, and where the rise of Islamism is also viewed as a threat. Finally, the Assyro-Chaldeans feel that they are treated as foreigners, and in growing numbers they are leaving Turkey in the hope of preserving their cultural and religious identity. 159. The Special Rapporteur recommends that the authorities guarantee, respect and protect the rights of minority religious communities. 160. The following recommendations are made to the Turkish authorities with respect to the Christian, Greek Orthodox and Armenian minorities: (a) The Government should take all necessary steps to prevent and eliminate the discrimination that results from the progressive and de facto refusal to grant and allow the use of an appropriate legal entity structure: this situation affects a whole range of legitimate religious activities such as the acquisition and management of property, financial support of the clergy and other religious personnel, etc. (b) The Government should ensure that the legal entity structure itself, in this case the foundations, responds to the basic needs of minorities (and they should remove any obstacle to the functioning of these foundations, such as legal and de facto restrictions on the election and replacement of boards of directors) 28 and if necessary they should improve this legal mechanism, or even grant legal status to the religious leadership of these communities, i.e. the Patriarchate, if these foundations should be found ineffective or inappropriate. (c) In addition to the recommendation concerning legislation on unused properties, the Government should ensure that public institutions, in particular the General Director to Foundations, do not discriminate against Christian minorities. It is essential that these institutions should cease to deprive these minorities of their property and the resources needed for them to function and to conduct their religious activities. (d) The Government should guarantee minorities the right to establish and maintain their own places of worship, and should allow them to build such facilities in places where new communities have taken root. Any limitations in this respect, for example urban development regulations, should be consistent with international jurisprudence (see General Commentary of the Commission on Human Rights), and this means that any non-conforming regulations should be repealed or revised. (e) The Government should guarantee minorities the right to teach their religion, in places suitable for this purpose, and to train their clergy. The Special Rapporteur believes it indispensable that minorities once again have their own religious seminaries, in accordance with article 6 of the 1981 Declaration and the General Commentary No. 22 (48) of the Commission on Human Rights (“the practice and teaching of religion and belief includes acts integral to the conduct by religious groups of their basic affairs, such as, inter alia, the freedom to choose their religious leaders, priests and teachers, the freedom to establish seminars or religious schools…”). (f) The Government should guarantee the proper functioning of minority educational establishments, by removing obstacles to the appointment of headmasters. The issue of enrolment for children not belonging (or not recognized by the authorities as belonging) to the minority running these establishments (as is the case with Armenian children) should be examined by the Working Group on Minorities of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion Protection of Human Rights, and by the Special Rapporteur on Education.