Since the failed coup of July 2016, the level of intolerance against those not siding with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has intensified. Turkish nationalism, combined with the growing Islamisation of Turkish society, means the tiny Christian minority, and other religious minorities, face mounting pressure, which is increasingly translating into violent incidents. While religious conversion is not prohibited by Turkish law, there are serious implications for Muslims who convert to Christianity, as they often experience intense pressure from family, friends and community to return to Islam.
Verdict postponed on Malatya murders
Turkish Christians are disappointed that no verdict was given on 28th June in a long-standing, nine-year murder trial following the killing of three Christians in Malatya in 2007. Court officials said that a verdict would be given, but the trial was adjourned until 28th September. Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and […]
Hate speech fuels violence vs. Turkish non-Muslims
A new report analysing freedom of religion or belief in Turkey faults both strong nationalism and the Erdogan government’s public endorsement of a Sunni Muslim identity for rising levels of hate speech against the nation’s religious minorities. According to studies cited in the April report by Christian Solidarity Worldwide, “religious […]
Turkey seizes six churches as state property in volatile southeast
The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church in Diyarbakir was one of the churches seized.World Watch Monitor After 10 months of urban conflict in Turkey’s war-torn southeast, the government has expropriated huge sections of property, apparently to rebuild and restore the historical centre of the region’s largest city, Diyarbakir. […]
Turkey backs down on closing Bursa’s only church
The local government of the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa ordered that its only church, which serves four congregations, be vacated by Friday (26 Feb.) before rescinding the order on Tuesday. Ismail Kulakcioglu, the pastor of the Protestant congregation, said they were given less than a week to vacate the […]
Turkey’s Protestants ‘anxious and distressed’
After a year filled with repeated threats and attacks against Protestant churches and their leaders in Turkey, the leader of their tiny Christian community has admitted that they remain “anxious and distressed”. In an interview with Al-Monitor, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek of the Association of Protestant Churches named two major obstacles […]
Fierce battles in southeast Turkey hedge in Christians
The 1,700-year-old Virgin Mary Syriac Orthodox Church, Diyarbakir, Turkey has been damaged in fighting between government forces and Kurdish separatists.World Watch Monitor One of the oldest churches in the world sustained damage last week in the intensified fighting between the Turkish government and Kurdish separatists. Rocket-propelled grenades destroyed a […]
Malatya victims’ families awarded compensation
A Turkish administrative court has ordered the Interior Ministry and the Malatya Governor’s Office to pay compensation damages to the families of three Christians murdered nearly nine years ago in the Zirve Christian publishing house in Malatya, in eastern Turkey. Ruling that the two government institutions were “negligent in their […]
Renovated church re-opens 30 miles from IS
The re-opening of an abandoned church in Mardin, SE Turkey, just 30 miles from Islamic State territory, is a symbol of “universal religious freedom”, worshippers were told at the renovated building’s dedication service on 7 November. Local politicians and leaders of all denominations were at the reopening ceremony “as a […]
Malatya murder suspects make final appeals
Four of five suspects on trial for murdering three Christians in Turkey’s south-eastern city of Malatya have all named the fifth suspect as the sole killer. It was no surprise when the four men, now in their late 20s, made their final defence appeals in court last week, each facing […]
Istanbul Patriarch deplores ethnic tensions
As deadly violence and hate speech spiralled in Turkey this week between Turkish nationalists and its minority Kurdish community, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I has urged the nation to learn from its past ethnic tensions. “How can one part of society look at another part of society with so much […]