A/55/280/Add.1 63. After the establishment of the Republic, according to these experts, the State pursued this nationalistic bent, including its anti-Christian component. They pointed to the following events, in particular: in 1932, legislation prohibited Greeks from practising certain professions (for example, law); in 1942, a wealth tax was aimed primarily at nonMuslims, who were economically very active, in an effort to Turkicize the economy by imposing prohibitive taxes that forced people to sell their property; in 1955, anti-Christian riots broke out, apparently linked to the Cyprus issue (a bomb was placed by an official of the Ministry of the Interior at the family home of Ataturk in order, it is alleged, to provoke attacks on Christians); in 1964, as a result of tensions over the Cyprus issue, Turkey broke its agreement with Greece and prohibited all commercial dealings by Greeks holding a Greek passport, leading thereby to the departure of some 40,000 Greeks; in the early 1980s, official television broadcasts used the terms “Armenian” and “Greek” as insults; in the late 1990s, the Minister of the Interior maintained publicly that Ocalan, the leader of the PKK, was of Armenian origin. These events occurred in parallel with Turkization campaigns promoting, for example, the slogan of “one language, one race, one culture”. 64. According to these same experts, as a result of the isolation of Turkish society, particularly at the beginning of the Republic, and of the events and policies described above, the State developed within itself deeply xenophobic feelings explained, in part, by the perception of European interference in the last days of the Ottoman Empire. It must be stressed that, as distinct from the Christian minorities, the Jewish community has generally enjoyed satisfactory treatment to the extent that after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire the land claimed by the Jews lay outside Turkey, in contrast to the territorial claims of the Armenians and Greeks. The current satisfactory status of the Jewish minority also reflects the positive effects of rapprochement between Turkey and Israel, particularly in the military sphere. 65. Finally, according to the experts, the Christian minorities, in comparison with the Jewish community, appear to be faced with a kind of “steamroller” effect that is driving them to leave en masse, for reasons entirely unrelated to economic considerations. These minorities are also the victims of a generalized social intolerance, particularly among people in rural areas 14 who are strongly attached to their own religion but who have no sense of respect for other religions. This reflects the direct fallout of State policies towards minorities, the historical events described above, and the negative impact of some of the media, which have continued to promote a message of intolerance towards the Christian minorities. 66. With respect to the danger of political exploitation of religion by extremists, several nongovernmental representatives expressed their concern over this phenomenon. It was suggested that, because of political concessions, the Islamists had been able to use the media to take over control of society and even of State institutions (particularly in the area of justice and education). In this respect, it was claimed that the Fazilet party, which is currently represented in Parliament, was merely the successor of the Refah, which was banned by the Constitutional Court in January 1998 for attempted subversion and imposition of a theocratic state. Several representatives maintained, nevertheless, that there was little risk of establishing a theocratic state, given the role of the Army as the guardian of secularism. Yet generally speaking, many representatives deplored the fact that Islam was being used as a tool of political exploitation by all players in the country’s political life, both in government and within the political parties, particularly the Fazilet, which was seeking to recruit not only Turkish society but also the Army, the power of last resort for Turkish democracy. This paradoxical situation demonstrates, according to several experts, that Turkey has not yet been able to create a true secularism either of ideology or of action. C. Consultations with a representative of the Fazilet party 67. While the governmental authorities explained their position in terms of secularism as the cornerstone of the Turkish State, and cited the dangers inherent in attempts to exploit religion for political purposes, particularly through demands for wearing the veil in public institutions, a representative of the Fazilet party declared that, since 28 February 1997, the State had been interfering in internal religious affairs through direct intervention by the military and by the Prosecutor of the Public Safety Courts against a female deputy (of Turkish and American nationality) who was wearing the veil in Parliament. He saw in this a serious breach of human rights, representing an attack on the