"Save the monastery of Mor Gabriel, save Christendom in Turkey"-- that is the slogan of a huge demonstration planned for Sunday in Berlin. Its aim is to help safeguard the existence of Mor Gabriel -- also known as the Monastery of St. Gabriel -- which is the spiritual center of Syriac-Orthodox Christians in Turkey. Founded in 397, it is the oldest surviving Syriac Orthodox monastery in the world. It is located on the Tur Abdin plateau in Southeastern Turkey, the motherland of the Syriac people. Its main purpose is to keep Syriac Orthodox Christianity alive in the land of its birth by providing schooling and the ordination of native-born monks. Throughout its long history, it has also provided physical protection to Turkey's Christian minority.

The socalled "Action Mor Gabriel" was founded by S.E. Mor Julius Dr. Hanna Aydin, the Archbishop of the Syrian-Orthodox church of Antiochia in Germany in November 2008. It unites six organizations, namely the Archdiocese of Syrian-Orthodox Churches in Germany, the umbrella organisation of Tur Abdin, the European Syriac Union, the Federation of Arameans in Germany, the Federation Survoye and the Central Council of Assyrian Associations in Germany. The managing director of the "Action Mor Gabriel" is Raid Gharib, a German citizen of Turkish descent. He is a political scientist working at the university of Tübingen on a Ph.D. entitled "Nation and identity of the Syriac Christians: The quest for a feasible societal model."

(Interview: Angelika Ditscheid/ Raid Gharib)