Tag: Armenians

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

Historic church destroyed in Syria

April 30, 2015 Syria Aleppo, Armenians, Churches, Islamic State, Syria

An historic Armenian church has been destroyed in Aleppo, Syria. The Armenian Church of Forty Martyrs dates back to the 15th Century. The Armenian Weekly says it is unclear whether the church was destroyed by shelling or explosives. “The church was at the centre of Armenian community life in Aleppo, . . . Read More

Overcoming a century of pain

April 24, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians

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 . . . 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

Pope angers Turkey over Armenia

April 13, 2015 Turkey Armenian Genocide, Armenians, Pope Francis, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Turkey’s Orthodox and Protestants mend centuries of mistrust

April 1, 2015 Turkey Armenians, Assyrians, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Islamic State, Mardin, Protestants, Syria, Syriacs, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

Assyrian Christians flee jihadists to southeast Turkey

March 27, 2015 Syria Armenians, Assyrians, Bashar al-Assad, Genocide, Iraq, Islamic State, Khabur, Kidnapping, Lebanon, Qamishli, Syriacs, Turkey

A harsh Islamic State offensive begun in late February against Syria’s dwindling Assyrian Christian population is accelerating a steady trickle of Christian refugees trying desperately to reach safety in Turkey, northern Iraq and Lebanon. But their future is far from guaranteed as refugees in Muslim-majority Turkey, where according to Turkish . . . Read More

Iranian pastor released from prison but others arrested same day remain

February 27, 2015 Iran Armenians, Assyrians, Ayatollah Khamenei, Chaldeans, Evin Prison, Farshid Fathi, Hassan Rouhani, Iran, Islamic extremism, Religious freedom, Sunni, Tehran, Victor Bet-Tamraz

After spending more than one year in prison, for ‘collusion against the [Iranian] government’ and ‘evangelism,’ Iranian pastor Rasoul Abdollahi has been released from prison. Abdollahi, a leader in Iran’s house church movement, was arrested Dec. 26 2010 and released last week, Feb. 16. His arrest was the same day . . . Read More

Christmas arrests in Iran: 11 still detained

January 15, 2015 Iran Apostasy, Armenians, Assyrians, Christmas, Converts, Evin Prison, Human rights, Iran, Minorities, Religious freedom, UK, Victor Bet-Tamraz, Zoroastrians

As the US Secretary of State meets his Iranian counterpart in a bid to revive stalled talks over Iran’s nuclear programme, human rights experts are keen that issues of freedom of religion are not overlooked. This week, the UK Foreign Office has said that it’s raised its concern with the . . . Read More

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