Tag: Ankara

Trump presses Turkish president to release jailed US pastor

May 17, 2017 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Coup, Donald Trump, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Andrew Brunson in a photo provided by his family.

US President Donald Trump has raised the issue of a US pastor imprisoned in Turkey during his first face-to-face meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Washington DC, reports CNN. According to the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), both President Trump and Vice President Mike Pence spoke . . . Read More

Secretary of State Tillerson meets wife of US pastor jailed in Turkey

March 31, 2017 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Binali Yildirim, Coup, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, PKK, Suruç

Norine Brunson stands below_Izmir's Harmandanli Detention Center,_where her husband had first been held

America’s top diplomat met for 20 minutes yesterday with the wife of US pastor Andrew Brunson, jailed in Turkey for nearly six months on undisclosed charges of involvement in a terrorist organization. US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was on a one-day stopover (March 30) in the Turkish capital Ankara, . . . Read More

Turkish court blocks US Christian’s deportation

February 17, 2017 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Coup, David Byle, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Proselytism, Ryan Keating

David Byle preaching in Turkey.World Watch Monitor Turkey’s Constitutional Court intervened promptly this week to block temporarily the pending deportation and re-entry ban ordered against a US citizen active in Christian ministry in Turkey for the past 17 years. Without the high court’s provisional ruling, Canadian-American David Byle would . . . Read More

Turkey nightclub-massacre accused says he targeted Christians

February 14, 2017 Turkey Ankara, Coup, Islamic State, Terrorism

The man charged with killing 39 people on New Year’s Eve at Istanbul’s exclusive Reina nightclub attack, Abdulkadir Masharipov, has testified before a Turkish court, saying: “My purpose was to kill Christians”. The Uzbek national was arraigned in court 11 Feb., nearly a month after he was captured by Istanbul police 16 . . . Read More

US academic and refugee aid worker ‘banned for life’ from Turkey

October 21, 2016 Turkey Ankara, Coup, Ryan Keating

Ryan Keating was a doctoral student at Ankara University.World Watch Monitor Turkey deported an American Christian pursuing doctoral studies at Ankara University this week, revoking his residence visa 10 years after the scholar and his family first arrived in the country. Ryan D. Keating, a Yale University graduate, was refused entry . . . Read More

Turkey’s Protestants ‘anxious and distressed’

February 15, 2016 Turkey Ankara, Balikesir, Christmas, Protestants

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 . . . Read More

Turkey moves Malatya murder trial court

March 11, 2015 Turkey Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Malatya, Turkey

In still another delay in a years-long trial over the 2007 murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey, the Zirve Publishing House trial is to be moved away from the place where the murders happened, Malatya, to another province. The pending court transfer stems from a legislative amendment which has . . . Read More

Pope Francis addresses plight of Christians in Turkish visit

December 1, 2014 Turkey Ankara, Greek Orthodox, Islamic State, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Pope Francis, Syria

Turkey’s tiny Christian population was grateful for Pope Francis’s Nov. 28-30 visit to their country, during which he called for an end to all forms of violent fundamentalism in the war-torn Middle East. In a Nov. 30 joint statement with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, the spiritual head of the Eastern Orthodox . . . Read More

Church head in unprecedented meeting with Turkish MPs

February 27, 2012 Turkey Ankara, Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

In an unprecedented meeting, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church in Turkey last week expressed his concerns and hopes for the country’s Christian minority to members of the Turkish Parliament. The visit took place in Ankara after Speaker of the Parliament Cemil Cicek invited Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I to . . . Read More

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