2/2/10 - Alarabiya.net - STRASBOURG (Agencies)

Europe's top rights court ruled Tuesday that references to faith on Turkey's national identity cards breached freedom of religion laws.

In another closely watched case that gauged respect for human rights in European Union candidate Turkey, the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) ruled against eight Kurds asking to use Kurdish names on identity cards

The ECHR said the presence of a "religion" box on Turkish ID cards violated the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion -- even if holders can ask for it to be left blank.

This right, enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights, entitled people not to disclose their faith if they so chose, the court said.

The judges made the ruling in the case of a member of the Alevi community, a sizeable religious minority in Turkey which is influenced by Sufi Islam but whose members maintain they are not Muslims.

Turkish courts refused to allow Sinan Isik, from the western Turkish city of Izmir, to state his religion as "Alevi" on his ID card, ruling it was a sub-group of Islam.

He then took his case to Strasbourg, arguing that having to state his religion on a public document used frequently in everyday life violated his rights under the convention.

The Strasbourg judges ruled in his favor, even though Turkish ID card holders have been allowed to leave the religion box empty since 2006.

"The fact of having to apply to the authorities in writing for the deletion of the religion... on identity cards, and similarly, the mere fact of having an identity card with the 'religion' box left blank, obliged the individual to disclose, against his or her will, information concerning an aspect of his or her religion or most personal convictions," the court said in its judgment.

"That was undoubtedly at odds with the principle of freedom not to manifest one's religion or belief."

Isik made no application for damages, but the judges said Turkey could make amends and bring itself in line with the convention by removing the religion box from its ID cards.

Though Turkey has a majority Muslim population, the state is officially secular. Isik had also argued in the Turkish courts that his constitutional right not to disclose his faith had been breached.

Turkish alphabet

In the case of the eight Kurds, who are Turkish nationals, the court turned down a request to use Kurdish names which included the letters "q", "w" or "x", which are not part of the standard Turkish alphabet.

Kemal Taksin, one of the plaintiffs, asked that his first name be replaced with "Dilxwaz", a Kurdish name meaning "desired". He said that was the name used by people close to him. The others made similar requests.

The court ruled that for reasons of preserving administrative order, the state had the right to impose certain spelling norms in the use of names.

It noted that the applicants were not forbidden from using Kurdish names, merely from spelling them in a certain way and it said that it would have been possible to use the names with spellings adjusted to the Turkish alphabet.