Turkey Battles Over Christian Monastery

A battle over an ancient Christian monastery could deal a fresh blow to Turkey's bid to join the European Union, the Wall Street Journal reports. The Syrian Orthodox Mor Gabriel monastery, built in southeast Turkey in 397 AD, is one of the oldest functioning monasteries in the world—but government land surveyors and local Muslim villagers are trying to shrink its boundaries by more than half.

The fate of the monastic lands is being closely watched in the EU as a test of Turkey's ability to tolerate minority groups, a crucial condition of joining the union. Turkish officials say an ordinary land squabble is being given too much attention, but Mor Gabriel's bishop charges that Muslims are trying to drive the last few thousand Christians out of the area.
(More Turkey stories.)