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Turkey’s persecution of protestant Christians

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Ankara should be pressured by the EU and the US to respect the religious liberty of all Turkish citizens, writes Uzay Bulut.

Turkey’s government has a secular constitution, but it has nevertheless opened mosques around the world including Europe, Asia, Africa, as well as North and South America. And, although Turkey is both a NATO member and an EU candidate, it refuses to officially recognize the Protestant Christian community. Moreover, Turkey refuses to allow them to operate their own churches and to freely share their faith with their fellow citizens. At the same time, Turkey has converted many historic churches and monasteries into mosques, stables, warehouses, mess halls, ammunition stores, or private houses, among others. In July 2024, Turkey’s Regional Directorate of Foundations ordered the evacuation of the ‘French Church’ in Bursa before 24 August.

The Directorate claimed that the historical building was structurally unsafe, as the groundwater level was very high, and that a reinforcement project must be implemented. The news website Middle East Concern reported: No alternative meeting places were proposed and the request for the church to erect a tent for meetings was refused (barring special religious holidays). Bursa used to have more than 100 functioning churches, but today, the French Church is the only church open for Christian worship there. Representatives of the church, in collaboration with a certified office of the Chamber of Geological Engineers, prepared a report, assessing the risks as considerably lower than claimed by the Directorate of Foundations, noting that during thorough structural examinations and restoration work from 2002 to 2004, no significant problems were revealed, and repairs had been made to any superficial cracks.

In a 20 August press statement, the Bursa Protestant Church Life and Culture Foundation petitioned the authorities to have the evacuation order cancelled. In an interview with local television, the Protestant pastor, Ismail Kulakcioglu, asked why the evacuation order had to begin with the church, and he requested that a committee of experts be established to examine the situation from a scientific perspective. The ‘French Church’ was built in the late nineteenth century by French traders and restored in 2002-2004. It is used as a regular meeting place of worship by the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant communities. Meanwhile, the Protestant community is targeted with entry bans, forcing several expatriate Christians to leave the country. All of this is happening in a historically Christian land.

Anatolia (modern Turkey) is often referred to as ‘the second Holy Land’ after Israel. It is the birthplace of many apostles and saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, and Polycarp of Smyrna. Of the 27 books in the New Testament, 13 are attributed to St. Paul. Six were written to churches or saints located in Anatolia. Antioch (in Anatolia) is where followers of Christ were called Christians for the first time. Anatolia is home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where the Revelations of John were sent.

All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils were held in Anatolia. Of these, the Nicene Creed was declared during the First Council of Nicaea (present-day Iznik) in A.D. 325. Despite being a central place in the foundation of Christianity, today only 0.1% of Turkey’s population is Christian—mainly Greek, Armenian, or Assyrian Christian. The collapse of Turkey’s Christian communities is a result of a centuries-long persecution which includes genocides, expulsions, pogroms, forced conversions to Islam, official and civil discrimination, and other human rights abuses. There is, however, a growing Christian demographic through Turkish converts to Christianity, many of whom convert to a Protestant church.

For years, the Protestant community has struggled with many problems, including a lack of official recognition by the Turkish government. Since 2010, Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches has released an annual “Human Rights Violations Report” which details the state of religious freedom in the country. This report sheds light on the problems Protestant Christians face. Tactics include barring foreign Protestants from entering Turkey on the sole basis of their faith. The most recent report for the year of 2022, published in June 2023, is immensely valuable for understanding what Turkish converts are currently experiencing. A major difficulty faced by Protestant Christians in Turkey is the refusal of the government to recognize their community as a legal entity. This makes it difficult to establish and maintain places of worship. Because Turkish members of the Protestant community are mostly new Christians, they do not have historic religious buildings.

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They lack the same cultural and religious heritage of Turkeys’ other traditional Christian communities. And the usable number of historic church buildings is very limited, according to Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches. Therefore, a large portion of the Protestant community overcomes this problem by establishing an association, a religious foundation, or by gaining representative status with an existing association or religious foundation. This latter option allows them to rent or purchase property. However, they are not considered a ‘historic’ church structure but rather a stand-alone building, shop, or depot. A very small number have been able to build their own free-standing buildings. Many of these premises do not have official status and are not formally recognized as a place of worship, despite their usage. They cannot benefit from the advantages or conveniences given to officially recognized places of worship, such as free electricity, free water, and tax exemptions. When Protestant Church leaders rent these places and publicly introduce them as a church, they receive warnings that the venues are not legal and may be closed.

The growing Protestant community faces serious problems related to having places of worship, as Open Doors, an international human rights organization, notes: Purchasing premises for church use can prove to be very difficult, since zoning laws tend to be arbitrary. Turkish law stipulates that only certain buildings can be designated as churches. Whether or not a specific building may be used by a religious group as a church is highly dependent on the political and personal leanings of the local mayor, as well as on the attitude of the local population. Meanwhile, Turkish legislation does not allow for the training of church ministers in private education centers.

Open Doors explains the consequences: As a result all Greek Orthodox and Armenian Apostolic seminaries were forced to shut down in the 1970s and 1980s and remain closed to this day. Protestant Turkish Christians from a Muslim background have no facilities at all—they must either pursue their studies informally or train their pastors and leaders abroad. As of now, the Protestant community tries to solve this issue by providing apprentice training, giving seminars within Turkey, sending students abroad, or utilizing the support of foreign clergy. Since 2019, however, many of these foreign spiritual leaders (pastors) and church members have been deported, refused residence permits, or denied entry visas into Turkey. Open Doors notes: During the WWL (World Watch List) 2024 reporting period, the Turkish government continued to ban expatriate Christians from (re)entering the country, often on vague security grounds. Many of the Christians involved had been living in Turkey for years and some are even married to Turkish citizens. Those who had received earlier bans, often still struggle with the legal and practical consequences for them, their families and the church communities they belong to. These bans seem to be a deliberate attempt to isolate the Turkish Protestant church. The visa codes given to some pastors by Turkish authorities have indicated a ban against its holders from entering Turkey for security purposes. It may further require visa applicants to obtain ‘prior approval’ for entry (a de facto entry ban). Almost all foreign religious workers central to the Protestant community have been banned from entrance into Turkey, according to the 2022 report by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches. So far, 185 people have received a ‘visa code’ which prevents them from entering Turkey.

Many of these people and their families lived with residence status in Turkey for years. They committed no crimes, nor were they part of any investigation or criminal decision. Nearly all these individuals received an N-82 code (which requires a prior approval process for entry). Turkish authorities state that the N-82 restriction is not an entry ban but rather a requirement to obtain ‘prior approval’ for a visa. However, all those who were required to get ‘prior approval’ for their visas had their visa applications rejected. Although the N-82 is not an entry ban de jure, it is a de facto entry ban in Turkey. Some foreign Protestants also received the G-87 code which is meant for individuals thought to pose a general security threat. In other countries, this code is used for those who participate in armed activities, in terrorist organizations, or in political demonstrations. In 2022, there an additional code was introduced: Ç-152 is an entrance ban to Turkey.

Those that received this code are given an entrance ban of one year. “This trend of having difficulty with receiving or renewing visas is increasingly disruptive to the Protestant community’s work,” added the report. Court cases have been opened to challenge this situation. During proceedings, the authorities claimed that these people were pursuing activities “to the detriment of Turkey, had taken part in missionary activities, and that some of them had attended the Protestant Family Conference,” which has been held annually for twenty years, or that they attended other seminars and meetings that are both legal and transparent. Because case files are not accessible to either defendants or their lawyers, the defendants are not informed of what accusations they are facing, as the report notes: Some court cases have been finalized, and decisions are made against these people without giving or showing any reason, evidence, information, or documentation.

The administrative courts accept as evidence the National Intelligence Organization’s reports which are not stated in case files. The courts reject the complaints of the defendants based on the data of the intelligence organization. Foreign Protestants are thus unable to use their right to a fair trial. Although most of the congregations’ spiritual leadership consists of Turkish Christians, the need for foreign religious workers continues. Many congregations are left in difficult straits and the need for religious workers, especially leaders, continues to grow at a serious rate. Meanwhile, hate-speech and threats to Protestant churches in Turkey have increased, reports Open Doors: “The general atmosphere is tense, and the murder of South Korean evangelist Jinwook Kim in Diyarbakir in November 2019 stirred up fear.”

In addition, the Protestant church community was shocked in 2022 by a testimony from a leader of the ultra-nationalist Grey Wolves group. This leader informed the Turkish representative of the Salvation Church in Malatya that agents of the Gendarmerie Intelligence and anti-terror unit had promised him “whatever he wanted” in 2016 if he murdered the chairman of the local church association and a Western church worker. The Grey Wolves leader said he received photos of the men and their addresses. A first attempt was aborted after a young boy was also present inside the church, while a second attempt was stopped after the murder of the Russian ambassador in December 2016.

The testimony was a shocking reminder of the murder of three Christians in 2007, who were all members of Malatya’s Salvation Church. In April of that year, the Turkish Protestant Christian community was devastated by the brutal torture and murder of Christian converts Ugur Yuksel and Necati Aydin, and German national Tilman Geske. The murder took place at the Zirve Bible publishing house in the city of Malatya. Hate crimes against converts to Christianity were also reported in 2022. A church leader in Istanbul, for instance, was stabbed by a neighbor in the back and neck. After surgical treatment, the leader was released from hospital. In another incident, the children of the pastor of the Sanliurfa Church were attacked physically and verbally in school. Their 14-year-old child was forced to leave school due to the attack. After the attack, the family reported that they were afraid to leave their home for 15 days. The leader’s 12-year-old son was threatened by a friend: “Tell your father to be thankful that you are my friend or else I would break your car’s glass and take the cross hanging from the mirror.” Meanwhile, Christian content on YouTube, Instagram and Twitter accounts have received an increasing number of systematic curses, insults, and demeaning comments, according to the latest report by Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches: There has been a noticeable increase in hate speech filled with insults and profanity directed at official church accounts, church leaders, Christianity, Christian values, and Christians in general. Such attacks originate from social media group activity which cultivate hatred against Christians and target Christian websites and media presence. Social media has become the center of targeting, marginalization, degradation, and all kinds of discrimination against Christians.

Such activities directed at all Christian denominations and minority groups understandably creates concern in the Turkish Protestant community. Meanwhile, offers continue to be made to members of the Protestant community and to non-Christians working within Christian organizations to become informants for the Turkish government. In many cities with Protestant congregations, it was reported that offers to become informants were made to local Christians as well as refugee Christians. Such offers came from people claiming to be intelligence officers who used threats, promises, benefits, or money to gain information about Christians, churches, church activities and Christian organizations. Open Doors adds: “Turkey’s intelligence agencies are well equipped, and it is believed that the activities of Protestant Christians in particular are monitored closely (including the installation of listening devices inside churches).” Another challenge faced by Turkish Christians is the obligatory “religious culture and moral knowledge” classes and the requirement to declare one’s faith. Despite local court and the European High Court of Human Rights decisions that Turkey’s obligatory “religious culture and moral knowledge” lessons are against secularism and freedom of religion, the lessons continue to be taught at schools. The current content and sources of those classes are far removed from pluralism. Within textbooks, any parts regarding Christianity reflect an Islamic perspective and Christian views are not represented. Meanwhile, the Protestant community representatives are not invited to participate in meetings of religious groups organized by the government of Turkey or by official institutions. This shows that the government still ignores the presence of the Turkish Protestant community. The Turkish government should therefore be pressured by the EU executive and by the US government to respect the religious liberty of all Turkish citizens, and particularly of Turks who wish to leave Islam and embrace another faith or no faith.

Perhaps the most relevant tool in the US government’s toolkit is the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), which gives the State Department the ability to designate and sanction state and non-state actors who are guilty of egregious religious freedom violations. In addition, restrictive measures, or sanctions, are one of the EU’s tools to safeguard EU values including human rights. Future economic cooperation between Turkey and the West needs to be conditional to induce positive change. Such economic and diplomatic cooperation would be carried out only on the condition that the required changes are made and maintained. A good example is the release of American pastor Andrew Brunson by Turkey, which occurred after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to sanction Turkey. The entire history of Turkey demonstrates the fact that its government will not alter its behavior in any way unless it recognizes that human rights violations will result in serious consequences.

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