Fear is in the air in Turkey’s Syrian Orthodox Church, many of whose members are fleeing their ancient homeland in the face of the Islamist threat. Annabel Shilson-Thomas went to meet them The young man with precision-cut hair and Levi jeans had been listening intently to our after-dinner discussion, held against the surreal backdrop of a moonlit fourth-century monastery courtyard in the Tur Abdin region of south-eastern Turkey, the historic heartland of the Syrian Orthodox Church.One of our group, a political philosopher, had guided us through the horrors of the Armenian genocide at the beginning of the First World War, still officially denied by the Turkish Government. In between sips of strong sweet tea, our normally gregarious host had been quick to point out the systematic des