For Budding Turkish Winemaker, a Case of Sour Grapes or Religious Red Tape?
The Hurriyet Daily News has a story today about the travails of a Syriac (or Assyrian) Christian in southeast Turkey who is struggling mightily to get a winery off the ground. The Syriac minority, who have lived in southeast Turkey since early Christian times, have long been known in the region for the winemaking. But it appears that Yuhanna Aktas, the budding winemaker, is running into local and bureaucratic resistance to pumping up the region's wine production. From the HDN story:
The Syriac Christian and Turkish citizen living in the Midyat district of the southeastern province of Mardin has built a wine factory but said he has been unable to secure a water supply and a road for the facility.
Syriac families living in the region commonly produce wines, but it is hard for consumers to find them since they are not usually sold in shops.
Aktaş, a former jewelry maker, said in his letter that he had prepared a proposal to build a factory to produce homemade Syriac wines, a practice significant for Christians both culturally and religiously. He submitted his proposal to the Agriculture Ministry and obtained permission from the Tobacco and Alcohol Market Regulatory Agency, or TAPDK, to build the facility two years ago. He was granted permission, but, he said, his troubles only began there.
A few days after he received permission, Aktaş said, his house was raided by the police at night. He claimed his home’s front door was broken and he was beaten by police officers in front of his children. His bedroom and all the drawers in the house were searched for wine, he said, adding that the public prosecutor came to his house after the incident.
“I filed a complaint against these police officers but the court only gave a symbolic fine to one of them,” Aktaş said, adding that he was tried on charges of illegally producing wine at home due to the wines found in the cellar of his house. He said he told the court that some of these wines belonged to his friends and the rest were produced for use in church ceremonies.
The subtext to this story might be that after decades in which the Syriac community in the southeast was dwindling because of migration, there is now something of a return to the region by the community, something which may be creating friction with Muslim neighbors. For more background on the community and it's return, take a look at this previous Eurasianet story.
On a related note, click here to see a BBC broadcast from 2008 about the increasing red tape that Turkey's few pig farmers are facing. Most of them believe the bureaucracy they are facing is the result of religious pressure.
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