On occasions it has provided physical protection to the Christian population. Dayro d-Mor Gabriel is open to visitors, and it is possible to stay with permission, but is closed after dark. In the last decade the monastery has been involved in a land dispute with the Turkish government and Kurdish village leaders, particularly those linked to the Çelebi tribe, backed by local representatives of the ruling Justice and Development Party. In 2008 the villages Eğlence, Çandarlı and Yayvantepe as well as the Turkish Land Registry and the Office Forestry Ministry filed legal proceeding disputing the territory of the monastery. The monastery won the legal dispute against the villages but lost to the Turkish authorities which resulted in a loss of territory ownership of 60%, which led the monastery to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). Turkish government assistance to the Kurds is seen as retaliation against the Syriac diaspora for lobbying for international recognition of the killings of tens of thousands of Syriacs during World War I as genocide. Their attempts to confiscate land owned by the monastery has garnered attention from many European governments and gathered opposition to Turkey's EU bid, and could be the basis of a case by the monastery at the ECHR. Otmar Oehring from Missio, a German Catholic charity, has said that the cases mean that “the state's actions suggest it wishes that the monastery no longer existed.” There have also been claims that the monastery was built on the grounds of a previous mosque, regardless of the fact that the monastery was founded over 170 years prior to the birth of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. On 26 January 2011, the Turkish supreme court granted substantial parts of the Monastery to the Turkish Treasury. The ruling was that land inside and adjacent to the monastery, which the monastery has owned for decades and has paid taxes for, belongs to the State. On June 13, 2012 the Turkish supreme court of appeals upheld this decision, which Assyrians continued to protest. The then Turkish prime minister Erdoğan announced on 30 September 2013 that the land would be returned to the Syriac community in Turkey. This decision was approved a week later (7 October) by the Prime Ministry Directorate General of Foundations. A land registration process of two months would begin and was subject to approval. The head of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel Foundation was handed the deeds of 12 parcels of the immovable property belonged to the Foundation of the Monastery of Mor Gabriel on 25 February 2014. This was based on the decision taken on 7 October 2013 by the Council of Foundations of the General Directorate of the Foundations.