Tag: Turkey

Verdict postponed on Malatya murders

June 30, 2016 Turkey Malatya, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Germany recognises Turkish ‘genocide’ of Armenians

June 2, 2016 Global News -- No Particular Country Armenia, Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Genocide, Germany, Turkey

The German Parliament has recognised the massacre 100 years ago of up to a million Armenians by the Turkish Ottoman Empire as “genocide”. Early in the 4th Century, the Kingdom of Armenia was the first nation to adopt Christianity as its state religion. At the time of the genocide, Germany . . . 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 backs down on closing Bursa’s only church

February 24, 2016 Turkey Bursa, Churches, Converts, Greek Orthodox, Protestants, Sunni, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Malatya victims’ families awarded compensation

January 28, 2016 Turkey Malatya, Protestants, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Assyrians seek world support vs. Turkish bombings

January 27, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Dohuk, Iraq, Nineveh Plains, PKK, Turkey

A coalition of Assyrian organisations in Europe has urged Turkey to stop bombing Assyrian villages in northern Iraq “under the pretext of fighting the Kurdish PKK”, on 26 Jan. The aerial bombardment by Turkey was part of an intensified campaign, ongoing since late August 2015, according to a statement by . . . Read More

Iraqis who fled Mosul and IS flee Turkish bombing

January 19, 2016 Iraq Assyrians, Baghdad, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Louis Raphael I Sako, Mosul, Nineveh Plains, PKK, Saddam Hussein, Turkey

The Turkish air force has bombed the Assyro-Chaldean Christian village of Upper Sharanish in northern Iraq. Condemning what he called the “unjust act”, Chaldean Patriarch Louis Sako urged Ankara to “respect the lives and properties of the inhabitants and not to displace them under the pretext of fighting” the Kurdish . . . Read More

Islamic State’s ‘caliphate’ shrank 14% in 2015

January 6, 2016 Afghanistan, Iraq, Islamic State, Kurds, Mosul, Ramadi, Raqqa, Syria, Turkey, USA

Islamic State’s self-proclaimed ‘caliphate’ – the area within Syria and Iraq that the group controls – shrunk by more than 12,000 square kilometres in 2015, says . The loss of 14 per cent of its territory reduces the caliphate to 78,000 square kilometres. Main losses are large swathes of Syria . . . Read More

Iraqi priest released

January 5, 2016 Syria Damascus, Idlib, Iraq, Kidnapping, Refugees, Syria, Turkey

An Iraqi priest has been released, two weeks after he was abducted on his way back to his parish in Yacoubieh in Syria’s Idlib province, reports the . Franciscan friar Dhiya Azziz, 41, apparently disappeared from Lattakia, Syria, on 23 December after visiting his family (refugees in Turkey). Released on . . . Read More

Renovated church re-opens 30 miles from IS

November 23, 2015 Turkey Assyrians, Churches, Islamic State, Mardin, Protestants, Religious freedom, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

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