Tag: Turkey

‘You come here and take our jobs,’ Lebanese tell refugees

November 19, 2015 Lebanon Beirut, Lebanon, Refugees, Syria, Turkey, UN

World Watch Monitor has an occasional diary from a church leader still in Aleppo, the Syrian city that is now a key battleground between rebels and President Assad’s forces. Recently, however, pastor Samuel* visited Beirut in neighbouring Lebanon to meet some of that country’s one million Syrian refugees. This is his edited . . . Read More

Report: Christianity contracting in MidEast, Africa

October 16, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Africa, Belarus, Boko Haram, China, David Cameron, Egypt, Eritrea, Europe, India, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Islamic extremism, Islamic State, Israel, Jordan, Kenya, London, Middle East, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pope Francis, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UK, Ukraine, Vietnam

Christianity is fast disappearing from entire regions, most notably a huge chunk of the Middle East, and could vanish from Iraq within five years, according to a new report by Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need. Released in the UK’s House of Lords on Tuesday, the report, “Persecuted and . . . Read More

Istanbul Patriarch deplores ethnic tensions

September 11, 2015 Turkey Greek Orthodox, Istanbul, Kurds, Patriarch Bartholomew I, Turkey

As deadly violence and hate speech spiralled in Turkey this week between Turkish nationalists and its minority Kurdish community, Greek Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew I has urged the nation to learn from its past ethnic tensions. “How can one part of society look at another part of society with so much . . . Read More

‘We won’t let diversity of ME disappear’

September 9, 2015 Global News -- No Particular Country Europe, France, Iraq, Islamic State, Jordan, Lebanon, Middle East, Paris, Syria, Turkey, UN, Yazidis

A UN conference has announced a plan to protect minorities persecuted by the so-called Islamic State in the Middle East. Speaking at the conference in Paris of 60 countries on Tuesday, 8 Sep., French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said several countries would announce financial pledges in the coming months for . . . 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

Turkish authorities ask tiny Christian community to help Yazidi refugees

April 9, 2015 Turkey Diyarbakir, Iraq, Islamic State, Jerry Mattix, Refugees, Suruç, Syria, Turkey, Yazidis

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 . . . 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

Turkey moves Malatya murder trial court

March 11, 2015 Turkey Ankara, Diyarbakir, Istanbul, Malatya, Turkey

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 . . . Read More

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