Tag: Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Erdogan: ‘Only Sunni Muslims should live in Mosul’

October 7, 2016 Al-Qaeda, Ankawa, Arabs, Assyrians, Erbil, IDPs, Iraq, Islamic State, Mosul, Qatar, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Saudi Arabia, Sunni, Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has declared that only Sunni Muslims should be allowed to live in the second largest Iraqi city of Mosul once it has been liberated from Islamic State control. Interviewed by Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi on the Saudi Arabia-based TV station Rotana Khalejia on 2 Oct., . . . Read More

Hate speech fuels violence vs. Turkish non-Muslims

April 22, 2016 Turkey Armenians, Churches, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Kurds, Minorities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Sunni, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Turkey seizes six churches as state property in volatile southeast

April 6, 2016 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Assyrians, Chaldeans, Diyarbakir, Kurds, PKK, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Syriacs

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. . . . Read More

Syriac priest wrestles with Turkey’s ethnic tensions

April 22, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Assyrians, Diyarbakir, Islamic State, Kurds, Mardin, Middle East, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

In the courtyard of the 1,700-year-old church over which he presides, Fr. Yusuf Akbulut beams with pride. He points out that the excellent stone and woodwork is a result of the craftsmanship of his ethnic group, the Syriac Christians of Turkey. “The Syriacs were always the goldsmiths, metal workers, stone . . . Read More

Accused perpetrators released in Malatya murder trial

January 22, 2015 Turkey Malatya, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

n A Turkish criminal court has released two former military officers and an Islamic university researcher who had been jailed for nearly four years on suspected involvement in the 2007 murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey. At the 101st hearing of the case Jan. 21, the Malatya First High . . . Read More

Turkey ‘promises’ first new church in 90 years

January 20, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Greek Orthodox, Istanbul, Midyat, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish government allowed the first Syriac pre-school to open in Istanbul in September 2014.Mor Efrem Syriac Preschool’s Facebook photo The Turkish government has renewed its promise to allow the construction of a new church in Istanbul, a promise first made by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) . . . Read More

Turkey plans new global Islamic university

November 25, 2014 Turkey Education, Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Islamic extremism, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey

In an aggressive move to position itself as the intellectual center of the Muslim world, Turkey has announced plans to open an Islamic university similar to Egypt’s Al-Azhar, the oldest and most respected center of Islamic learning. Ankara’s announcement comes amid years of legal stonewalling for Turkey’s Christian minorities to . . . Read More

Malatya murder trial defendants exploit Turkish government ‘witch-hunt’

October 22, 2014 Turkey Fethullah Gülen, Malatya, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Suspects accused of helping to orchestrate the brutal murders of three Christians in southeast Turkey in 2007 are now blaming the crime on the Hizmet movement, an influential Islamic group accused of treason by the ruling Turkish government. Testimony from two former military officers and an Islamic university researcher dominated . . . Read More

Turkey returns less than half of monastery land it seized

March 13, 2014 Turkey Europe, Mardin, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Syriacs

The Turkish Ministry of EU Affairs welcomed March 2 the return of property, seized by the country’s treasury, to the world’s oldest Syriac Orthodox monastery, Mor Gabriel. In February, the head of the Mor Gabriel Religious Foundation, Kuryakos Ergun, received the property deeds to 12 plots of land totaling 244,000 . . . Read More

Promised legal reforms disappoint Turkey’s religious minorities

October 3, 2013 Turkey Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Kurds, Mor Gabriel Monastery, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Recep Tayyip Erdogan

An empty classroom in the Greek Orthodox Halki Seminary near Istanbul, closed by the Turkish government since 1971.World Watch Monitor The Turkish government’s long-awaited “democratisation package” of reform laws announced this week has met with considerable disappointment among Turkey’s minority religious communities. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan revealed on . . . Read More

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