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.
Death threats target Turkey’s Protestants
Fifteen Turkish Protestant congregations and their leaders have been targeted since 27 Aug. by a strident campaign of death threats sent to their Facebook, email, websites and mobile telephones. The threats followed the style and jargon typically used by the so-called Islamic State (IS), vowing to kill, massacre and behead […]
Overcoming a century of pain
Turkish and Armenian Christians circle the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan, Armenia, on April 11. NOTE: faces have been blurred to protect identities.Ricardo Pessoa “We came to share your pain,” Turkish Christians declared in early April, standing before TV cameras at the Armenian Genocide Memorial in Yerevan. “We have […]
Syriac priest wrestles with Turkey’s ethnic tensions
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 […]
Pope angers Turkey over Armenia
Turkey has recalled its envoy to the Vatican after Pope Francis controversially described Turkey’s mass killing of Armenian Christians in 1915 as the “first genocide of the 20th century”. Next week will see commemoration events to mark 100 years since as many as one and a half million Armenians were […]
Turkish authorities ask tiny Christian community to help Yazidi refugees
As a Turkish Christian, Ender Peker is used to facing hostility from religious Muslims, particularly because he lives in Turkey’s conservative southeast. So he was shocked last fall when an imam asked him to take over food distribution at a nearby refugee camp. “He said to me, ‘I want you […]
Turkey’s Orthodox and Protestants mend centuries of mistrust
On a Saturday in late March, a group of 20 volunteers went to an abandoned church in Turkey’s southeastern city of Mardin. They cleaned out broken chairs, a cracked pulpit, and books that haven’t been opened in decades. In the corner sat a 100-year-old organ. The church, in the heartland […]
Turkey moves Malatya murder trial court
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 […]
Accused perpetrators released in Malatya murder trial
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 […]
Turkey ‘promises’ first new church in 90 years
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) […]
Turkey allows first church to be built since 1923
According to Hurriyet Daily News, “the Council of Europe has hailed Turkey’s decision to allow the building of a new church for the Syriac community in Istanbul, which will be the first new church to be built in the country in nearly a century.” “It is the first [new church] […]