Tag: Turkey

Turkey calls for life imprisonment of US pastor Andrew Brunson

March 14, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Coup, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, PKK, Turkey, USA

A photo of the Rev. Andrew Brunson during his time in prison. Photo courtesy of World Witness

Turkish prosecutors demanded life imprisonment for jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson in an official indictment presented to Izmir’s 2nd Criminal Court yesterday, 13 March. Arrested without bail since October 2016, Brunson is accused of being “a member and executive” of the Islamic movement led by self-exiled Turkish cleric Fethullah Gülen, . . . Read More

Jailed US pastor’s daughter addresses UN Human Rights Council

March 13, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Coup, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, UN, USA

The daughter of jailed US pastor Andrew Brunson appealed to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva last week to help secure her father’s release from prison in Turkey, where he has been jailed for the past 17 months. Declaring that her father had been “falsely imprisoned for far . . . Read More

Pope and Patriarch ‘feared nuclear war could erupt over Syria’

February 27, 2018 Cuba, Dagestan, Greek Orthodox, Jordan, King Abdullah II, Moscow, Patriarch Kirill, Pope Francis, Russia, Syria, Turkey, USA, Vladimir Putin

Flag of Syria is waving as sign of victory over the destroyed heavily damaged city of Aleppo. (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

The historic meeting between the heads of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches took place not only out of shared concern for Middle Eastern Christians, but to try to avert confrontation between nuclear powers in Syria, according to the Russian Orthodox Patriarch. When Patriarch Kirill met Pope Francis in 2016 it . . . Read More

Turkish state blocks election of a new Armenian Patriarch

February 22, 2018 Turkey Armenians, Binali Yildirim, Greek Orthodox, Human rights, Istanbul, Minorities, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Religious freedom, Turkey

For the sixth time since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923, the government of constitutionally “secular” Turkey has openly intervened in the selection of a new Armenian Patriarch to lead the nation’s largest Christian community. Now estimated at less than 40,000, Turkey’s Armenian community – located primarily in . . . Read More

Bomb scare intimidates another church in Turkey

February 7, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Armenians, Balikesir, Bursa, Churches, Diyarbakir, Edirne, Erzurum, Gaziantep, Greek Orthodox, Halki Seminary, Human rights, Istanbul, Izmir, Malatya, Mersin, Middle East, Protestants, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Surp Giragos, Trabzon, Turkey

Trabzon church in a 2007 photo (World Watch Monitor)

Turkish police were called to Trabzon’s Santa Maria Catholic Church on Sunday morning (4 February) to examine a smouldering device spotted in the garden by alarmed church staff. After discovering a partially burned homemade pipe bomb, which had failed to explode, local authorities promptly checked the church’s security camera footage. . . . Read More

Syria church leader condemns Turkey’s ‘unjustified aggression’

January 24, 2018 Syria Afrin, Free Syrian Army, Kurds, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Turkey, USA

A senior church leader in Syria has condemned Turkey’s new military offensive as “unjustified aggression” and urged the international community to exert “maximum pressure” to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Rev. Abdalla Homsi, of the Evangelical Christian Alliance Church of Aleppo, issued a statement as an estimated 5,000 people were reported to . . . Read More

Jailed US pastor still refused ‘due process’ in Turkey

January 23, 2018 Turkey Andrew Brunson, Ankara, Coup, Fethullah Gülen, Izmir, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey, USA

As a high-level US delegation arrived in the Turkish capital today (23 January), in an effort to resolve high-level tensions between the two NATO allies, discussions were slated to include what officials in Washington have termed the “wrongful detention” of US pastor Andrew Brunson for the past 15 months. Led . . . Read More

Syrian church in Turkish-hit enclave calls for aid

January 22, 2018 Syria Afrin, Bashar al-Assad, Free Syrian Army, Kurds, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Syria, Turkey, USA

A church in a Syrian province under fire from Turkish troops has issued a plea for protection from the international community. Pastor Valentin Hanan of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Afrin, north-western Syria, wrote in an email to his supporters on Sunday (21 January): “We are at this . . . Read More

‘Unprecedented’ persecution of Egypt’s Christians heads 2018 World Watch List

January 10, 2018 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Anti-conversion law, Boko Haram, Cairo, Central Asia, Churches, Converts, Copts, Egypt, Eritrea, Fulani herdsmen, Hindu nationalism, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Jharkhand, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Maldives, Marawi, Middle Belt, Middle East, Mindanao, Minorities, Nepal, Nigeria, North Korea, Philippines, Somalia, Southeast Asia, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Turkey, Upper Egypt

More Christians abused in India than in all other countries combined; Nepal enters list Islamic extremists driven out of Iraq and Syria are behind a new intensity of Christian persecution in surrounding countries, says global charity Open Doors in its latest annual survey of countries where it is most difficult . . . Read More

Turkish Protestant church vandalised a second time in Malatya

November 27, 2017 Turkey Coup, Malatya, Protestants, Turkey

Malatya’s Kurtulus (Salvation) Church posted this message on the broken glass after an attacker heaved a brick through the church’s display window on November 24, 2017: “’Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.’ – Jesus Christ.” (Photo: World Watch Monitor)

A vandalism attack last week in Turkey’s south-eastern city of Malatya damaged a small Turkish Protestant church. The assault came just two days after the targeting of 13 minority Alevi families in a nearby neighbourhood. Rising sectarian tensions over the two incidents quickly prompted local police investigations, followed by a . . . Read More

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