Persecuted and Forgotten?
A report on Christians oppressed for their Faith 2015-17

KEY INDICATORS & FINDINGS

50 Syriac Orthodox Church properties were among buildings seized by the state. Indications of continuing intolerance seen in Islamification of historic Christian sites, eg Hagia Sophia.

STATISTICS

Total Population:
79.6 million

Level of Christian persecution:
Moderate to High

Current situation of Christians:
Worsened

CHRISTIAN POPULATION

Religions: Muslim 98.3%; Agnostic, 1.1%; Christians, 0.2%; Others, 0.4%

PROFILE

Against a background of political upheavals, including a failed coup against Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and a referendum on increased presidential powers, the outlook is bleak for the country’s Christian community. Anglican Canon Ian Sherwood, who has been chaplain to the British consulate and shepherded the Crimean Memorial Church in Istanbul for more than a quarter of a century, summed up the mood of the country’s churches when he said: “I’m not optimistic about the plight of Christians in Turkey. Bear in mind we’ve had a Roman Catholic Bishop murdered [Luigi Padovese in 2010], we’ve had clergy threatened, we’ve had one priest murdered 10 years ago [Fr Andrea Santoro]. Any Christian leader, if they’re being honest, would say that some of what’s going on is quite alarming.”

Despite some positive moves during the last period under examination (2013-15), when minority groups were invited to apply for properties seized by the government to be returned or compensation granted for the land, there has been a fresh spate of property seizures during the current period under examination and on a massively increased scale. It was reported by the Agos newspaper that at least 100 Syriac Christian properties in Mardin have been transferred to the state over the past five years. Around 50 properties belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church in Mardin were seized following a municipal reordering, on the grounds that their title deeds had expired. Among the property taken were two functioning monasteries built around 1,500 years ago, including the fifth-century Mor Gabriel, one of the oldest working monasteries in the world. Kuryakos Ergun, the chairman of the Mor Gabriel Monastery Foundation said: “Our churches and monasteries are what root Syriacs in these lands; our existence relies on them. They are our history and what sustains our culture. While the country should be protecting this heritage, we instead see our culture is at risk.” One analysis saw this seizure as symptomatic of deeper problems for the Christian minority, and a statement from the Assyrian Confederation of Europe said: “This act of confiscation is a grave violation of … human and cultural rights… serving as a stark contrast to the image Turkey has projected in recent years as a Muslim country tolerant of non-Muslims and minority groups in general.”

But the Mardin appropriations were not the only major seizure of churches and in April 2016 authorities declared six churches and Church-owned plots in Diyarbakir to be state property. While the council of ministers claimed the move formed part of plans to rebuild the city centre following heavy fighting between Turkish military and armed militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Christians expressed fears that property would not be returned. The Christians strenuously challenged state assertions that the seizure of Church property was connected to the reconstruction of the city centre following localised fighting. A number of property disputes are ongoing and it is notable that 2016 marked the 45th anniversary of the Greek Orthodox seminary of Halki, on the island of Heybeli, being seized by the state. Despite dialogue between the current government and the Church on the issue, it remains closed. While often localised, the issue of land seizure is nevertheless particularly indicative of a worsening situation for local Christian Churches in many parts of the country.
While the country’s constitution is based on the French model of laïcité, “[u]nder the Turkish interpretation of secularism, however, the state has pervasive control over religion and denies full legal status to all religious communities.” The state religious affairs directorate, the Diyanet, oversees all aspects of religion. All jobs related to religion (teachers of religion, ministers, etc.) depend on the department for their appointments, training and salaries. This extends to Christian communities, even though constitutionally its role is described as “to execute the works concerning the beliefs, worship, and ethics of Islam, enlighten the public about their religion, and administer the sacred worshipping places” (Italics mine). Christians and Jews are not represented on the Diyanet. Christians are not allowed to train ministers in the country, meaning communities are forced to send students abroad or rely on foreign ministers. However, there has been a government crackdown on foreign ministers with long-term residence in Turkey, as seen in the case of Rev Andrew Brunson, who was detained in October 2016 (see incidents below).

In the sphere of education, controversy continues to surround the ‘Religious, Cultural and Moral Knowledge’ course for primary and secondary schools, which has been made compulsory by the government. Although non-Muslim students can be exempted, this often necessitates disclosing their religion affiliation, thereby causing social ostracism. In February 2017, the government responded to concerns that the course showed favouritism towards Islam to the detriment of other faiths by announcing that a more balanced approach would be put in place.

Perhaps the clearest symbol of the tensions in Turkish society between pluralism and Islamisation has been the proposal to make the historic Hagia Sophia into a mosque again. Built as a Greek Orthodox church in 537AD, it was converted into a mosque after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, before becoming a museum in 1935 when the new republic was declared. On the anniversary of the fall of Constantinople in both 2016 and 2017 members of the Nationalist Anatolian Youth Association prayed in front of Hagia Sophia and demanded that the building be “reconverted” into a mosque. In April 2015 the Qur’an was proclaimed in Hagia Sophia for the first time in 85 years at the launch event for an exhibition of Islamic calligraphic work, and this was followed in June 2016 by the recitation of the Qur’an every day through Ramadan for broadcast on the state religion channel run by the Diyanet. According to a statement by Greek politicians Dora Bakoyanni and Ioannis Kefalogiannis, the Ramadan programme “virtually transformed it into a mosque for the first time in 80 years. It is a provocative and incomprehensible act and shows disrespect against Orthodox Christians across the world…”

 

Selected Incidents

September 2015: Four of the five men being tried for murdering three Christians in city of Malatya in April 2007 said the fifth suspect, Emre Gunaydin, carried out the killings alone. “Emre Gunaydin killed them one by one, mercilessly,” suspect Salih Gurler told the court. They also claimed that Gunaydin coerced them to take part in the raid on the offices of the Christian publisher where the men were killed. The clams were made at the 107th hearing in the case, which was then in its eighth year.

February 2016: An oral order was given for Bursa’s only church building to be vacated in five days, on Thursday, 18th February. The French Church Cultural Centre is used by an Orthodox and Protestant community as well as two Catholic ones. The centre was built as a church in the 1880s to serve local French-speaking Catholics. It was restored between 2002 and 2004 after falling derelict and a protocol with the local municipality allowed Christian services to be held there. The eviction order came after a group within the city council opposed the renewing of the protocol, following a supposed lapse in 2015. The deadline to vacate the property was later extended to Friday 26th February – but on Tuesday 23rd February the order was rescinded.

February 2016: Trabzon’s Church of St Sophia, previously classified as a “museum” and therefore under the control of the Culture Ministry, was transferred to the Diyanet.

February 2016: During the curfew imposed by the army on ?za?/Idil in south-eastern Turkey, local Syriac Christian families were physically attacked. The doors of the Church of the Virgin ventolin inhaler were forced open.

April 2016: The government seized six churches and various plots of land belonging to Christians in the south-eastern city of Diyarbakir, declaring them to be state property. While the council of ministers claimed the move formed part of plans to rebuild the city centre following heavy fighting between Turkish military and armed militants from the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, Christians expressed fears that property would not be returned. A video issued by the prime minister’s office describing the rebuilding scheme strongly focused on the area’s Islamic heritage, and at one point the narration says: “The call to prayer that rises from Diyarbakir’s minarets will not be quieted down.” Abdullah Demirbas, a former mayor of Diyarbakir said: “The government wants to seize the heart of Diyarbakir and singularise it, ridding it of its rich multifaith and multicultural structure.” Ministers responded by pointing out that they have also seized a number of mosques, but unlike churches, Turkey’s mosques are the responsibility of the state, whereas other places of worship are privately maintained.

April 2016: The Protestant community in Ordu, which does not have a place of worship, was denied use of the historical Ta?ba?? Orthodox Church. There are plans to turn the church into an archaeological museum.

May 2016: Five people died when a suicide bomber blew himself up a checkpoint between two Syriac Orthodox villages in the south-eastern region of Tur Abdin. The bombing took place close to Hah’s ancient church of St Mary, smashing its windows.

July 2016: During the night of the attempted military coup on Friday, 15th July, a group of around 10 people smashed the windows of Santa Maria Catholic Church in the northern coastal town of Trabzon. They also tried to break into the church, but were driven away by Muslim neighbours who then contacted the priest. The same night, glass panels were broken in the door of the Malatya Protestant Church, located in the eastern town of Malatya, where three employees of a Christian publishing house were killed in 2007. Its pastor, Tim Stone, said he thought someone with a grudge against the church had taken advantage of the unrest caused by the coup.

September 2016: Protestant ministers received death threats, apparently from Daesh (ISIS). Umut Sahin, the secretary-general of the Union of Protestant Churches said: “Some people have sent death threats to the mobile phones of 15 pastors.” He added: “They used the same terms and arguments as IS[IS] in their text messages. They sent the pastors propaganda videos of IS[IS].”

October 2016: In the face of opposition from Christian groups, the Diyanet appointed Önder Soy as the first imam for Hagia Sofia for 81 years. This was widely interpreted as another move towards converting the building into a mosque. Soy recites the Muslim call to prayer five times daily from the loudspeakers in the building’s minarets, but prayers are held next door at the former Sultan’s Palace. Soy, described as a “modern imam”, told CNN: “They had to appoint someone like me to this important place as there are not only followers of Islam who come here but also followers of Christianity and followers of no particular religion at all.”

October-December 2016: American pastor Andrew Brunson and his wife were detained at the Harmandali Detention Centre in northern Izmir on 7th October under Interior Ministry deportation orders. In December, Rev Brunson’s wife was released but he was charged with “membership [of] an armed terrorist organisation”, the Fetullah Gulen movement, which is accused of instigating July’s failed military coup. The pastor was moved to Izmir’s Sakran 3 Nolu T Tipi Prison after being charged.

December 2016: Part of the former Assyrian Church of Peter and Paul in Sanliurfa city (the biblical city of Edessa) was handed over to a foundation that runs the Islamic school of the city’s Harran University. The building had ceased to function as a church after the Ottoman era, and was subsequently used as a tobacco factory, a grape storehouse and for carpet-making classes –before becoming a “Cultural Centre”. There were hopes that it would be returned to the Church following a 2011 government decree pledging the return of confiscated religious buildings to their former use.

December 2016-January 2017: A man charged with killing 39 people in Reina nightclub, Istanbul, on New Year’s Eve, told the court: “My purpose was to kill Christians.” Uzbek national Abdulkadir Masharipov, who reportedly trained in Afghanistan before moving to Turkey, stated he was a member of Daesh (ISIS) and claimed the killings were a revenge attack for Turkey’s military action in Syria. He told the court: “I believed it was an act of revenge against the murderous actions carried out by the world’s Christians, an act of retaliation on their holiday.” New Year celebrations are discouraged by many of Turkey’s orthodox Muslims. The vast majority of those killed or injured were Muslims. During the Christmas and New Year period, there was an upsurge in anti-Christian rhetoric, with billboards, leaflets, and state media carrying messages against the celebration.

June-July 2017: Turkish authorities seized around 50 properties belonging to the Syriac Orthodox Church in Mardin, including dozens of churches and two monasteries. As a result of a municipal reorganisation, villages were incorporated as neighborhoods in the newly established city of Mardin in 2012. In 2016, authorities began transferring the ownership of local assets to state institutions, but this included houses of worship, cemeteries and other properties belonging to the Syriac Orthodox community, which were listed in the national land registry as belonging to the villages where they were located. The buildings and land were scheduled to be handed over to the Diyanet. Among the property taken are two functioning monasteries built around 1,500 years ago, including the fifth-century Mor Gabriel, one of the oldest working monasteries in the world. The Foundation of Mor Gabriel Monastery filed a court case at the Civil Court of First Instance in Mardin against the seizure by Mardin Treasury, citing both the monastery’s ancient foundation and asserting that the Lausanne Treaty had been violated: “According to Article 42/3 of the Lausanne Treaty the Turkish Government undertakes to grant full protection to the churches, synagogues, cemeteries, and other religious establishments of the above-mentioned minorities (non-Muslims).” In early July, the Mardin governor’s office said that until legal questions are resolved the properties will not be turned over to the Diyanet.

June-July 2017: Reports stated that over the past five years the ownership of at least 100 historic Syriac Christian properties in Mardin, south-eastern Turkey has been transferred to the state treasury. According to the lead story in the weekly Agos newspaper (cover dated 23rd June), the state treasury has authorised the transfer of the deeds of many properties to the Diyanet. In a number of cases local Syriac Orthodox communities have had to lease back their churches from the government – but in other cases they have lost their buildings when they have been sold by the state. Diyanet President Dr Mehmet Gormez described the report as “dark propaganda”. However, a Mardin Governorate court order dated 12th August 2014 authorises the transfer of the deeds of numerous Syriac Orthodox properties to the Diyanet. The Church was not informed of the move, and it is conceivable that the Diyanet may also have been unaware of the local decision. The transfer from the treasury to the Diyanet was due to happen on 3rd July 2017, but it was legally halted following an outcry from the Syriac community.

July 2017: The Turkish parliament’s constitutional committee banned the term “Armenian Genocide” from being used in the legislature. The Armenian Genocide refers to the systematic extermination of Armenian Christian minority under the Ottoman Empire in 1915-17. In January 2017 Garo Paylan was suspended after referring to the Armenian Genocide during a debate on the Turkish constitution –saying that Armenians, Assyrians, Greeks and Jews were “exiled from these lands or subjected to tortures as a result of large massacres and genocide”.