Mission Network NewsAccording to Israel National News, over 200 people were arrested for alleged involvement in the recent military coup to overthrow the Turkish government. Perpetrators included high ranking generals and politicians.
Several reports say that the secularist coup had been in the making since 2003 when the Justice and Development (AK) party came to power. Sources go on to say that the coup planned to bomb several mosques, and that a staged conflict with Greece was underway in order to justifiably overturn the mostly Muslim government.
Although Christians were not directly involved in this conflict, Behnan Konutgan with I.N. Network in Turkey says they were originally a target of the coup.
"These plans to overthrow the regime also included plans to kill and persecute Christians so that they could blame the Islamic party," says Konutgan. Fortunately these threats were extinguished by the Turkish government, which has been protecting Turkish Christians. Konutgan says Christians are in no real danger at this time.
However, believers do have a role to play in the wake of this uprising. Fighting between groups has been going on for over 30 years, according to Konutgan. This unrest is causing a country comprised of 99 percent Muslims to reevaluate.
"People are really tired of this [unrest]," notes Konutgan. "This political unrest leads people to question what they have always believed, and they are searching for answers. This situation opens a door for Muslims to think about Christ."
Christians have the opportunity to share their faith as Turks search out truth after the upheaval. Konutgan believes many will take that opportunity, but asks that all believers pray.
"Pray that all church members will be prepared to take every opportunity to glorify God and reach the people of Turkey with the salvation of Christ."
Baseless Case Against Turkish Christians Further ProlongedBarely five minutes into the latest hearing of a more than three-year-old case against two Christians accused of “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” the session was over.
The prosecution had failed to produce their three final witnesses to testify against Hakan Tastan and Turan Topal for alleged crimes committed under Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. The same three witnesses had failed to heed a previous court summons to testify at the last hearing, held on Oct. 15, 2009.
This time, at the Jan. 28 hearing, one witness employed in Istanbul’s security police headquarters sent word to inform the court that she was recovering from surgery and unable to attend. Of the other two witnesses, both identified as “armed forces” personnel, one was found to be registered at an address 675 miles away, in the city of Iskenderun, and the other’s whereabouts had not yet been confirmed.
So the court issued instructions for the female witness to be summoned a third time, to testify at the next hearing, set for May 25. The court ordered the witness in Iskenderun to submit his “eyewitness” testimony in writing to the Iskenderun criminal court, to be forwarded to the Silivri court. No further action was taken to summon the third witness.
An Istanbul court has ordered the release of a jailed Turk who publicly threatened and held a knife to the throat of a Christian he attacked six months ago. In a ruling on Wednesday (Feb. 10), the Kadikoy Seventh Court of First Instance convicted Yasin Karasu, 24, of making death threats and mounting an armed attack against Ismail Aydin. Shouting to attract passersby as he held a knife to Aydin’s throat on Aug. 3, Karasu had denounced the Christian as a “missionary dog” who had betrayed Turkey by leaving Islam and evangelizing others. The crime is punishable by four years in prison, but Justice Tahsin Dogan ruled that Karasu should be released unconditionally, without serving the remainder of his sentence. “It seems that the judge did not take into account at all that this crime was committed with religious hostility,” one member of the legal committee of Turkey’s Association of Protestant Churches told Compass. “That, in my view, should have aggravated the crime and sentence.”
turkey: Court blocks religious college proposalTurkey’s highest administrative court has ruled against a government-backed move to make it easier for students from religious training colleges to go to university, the Anatolia news agency has reported.
The Council of State blocked the implementation of a proposal made in December by the Higher Education Board (YOK) to change the way study marks are assessed, the agency said.
The YOK wanted to change the coefficients applied to the grades of students from religious colleges, called Imam Hatip schools, which currently make it difficult for them to get on university courses other than theology.
Imam Hatip schools are state-run establishments that train imams, and defenders of Turkey’s secular system sometimes accuse them of being breeding grounds of Islamism.
In November the Council of State blocked a similar proposal from the YOK that was hailed at the time by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose Justice and Development Party has its roots in a now-banned Islamist movement.
World Jewish CongressA survey of attitudes has found that the populations of nearly all predominantly Muslim countries hold a negative attitude toward Jews. The Pew Research Center’s survey, which was carried out in mid-2009 in 25 countries, found that 98 percent of Lebanese, 97 percent of Jordanians and Palestinians and 95 percent of Egyptians hold an unfavorable view of Jews. However, only 35 percent of Israeli Arabs said they disliked Jews. In Turkey, the figure jumped from 32 percent in 2004 to 73 percent in 2009.
European court rules against religion box in ID cardsListing religions on identity cards, whether obligatory or optional, is in violation of human rights, the top European human rights court ruled on Tuesday in case filed by a Turkish citizen who is a member of the Alevi community.
Bardakoğlu expresses support for Halki Seminary reopeningBardakoğlu said in an interview with the NTV news channel that as a Muslim and the head of Turkey’s Religious Affairs Directorate he supports everyone’s religious freedom. “We should act ethically and be principled on this issue. Our ancestors opened the Halki Seminary in İstanbul. I have always been in support of the religious freedom of all religious groups in our country,” he said.
Touching upon another controversial issue surrounding religious freedom in Turkey, Bardakoğlu said that a former Roman Catholic church in Tarsus, which was confiscated by the state in 1943 and is now a museum, should be turned back into a house of worship.
Rather than remaining a museum, St. Paul’s Church should be reopened as a church, Bardakoğlu said. “Let churches remain churches and mosques, mosques. People should be able to openly express their religions or irreligiousness. Atheists should also be able to live freely in this society. This does not mean that we approve of atheism. We should also demand the same freedoms for Muslims.
America MagazineThe strange thing about studying early Christianity in Turkey is that there are not a lot of Christians left in Turkey, the lands that were home to so much of the earliest growth and development of Christianity and the location of all seven of the first Ecumenical Councils. As we discuss how Christianity displaced, person by person, century by century, the pagan gods that predominated the Mediterranean Basin prior to the rise of Christianity, we reflect in our course on how it could even take place at all. How could a mission started by Paul, John, Barnabas, Peter, Timothy, Priscilla, Lydia and others have any success? We focus a lot on the movement of the Holy Spirit, on the experience of Jesus Christ. The ancients were not looking for gods, necessarily, but they were looking for hope and salvation. If the conversion of these lands and people is a sign of God's powerful work, what does it mean when these lands converted by the Christians are no longer Christian lands?
Religion News: Pope calls on Turkey to give church legal recognitionPope Benedict XVI has called on Turkey to give legal recognition to the Roman Catholic Church in the Muslim-majority but politically secular nation, which has been criticized for its treatment of religious minorities as it seeks to join the European Union.
Receiving Kenan Gursoy, the new Turkish ambassador to the Vatican last week (Jan. 7), Benedict said Catholics appreciated the freedom of worship, "guaranteed by the constitution" in Turkey. However, he added that "civil juridical recognition" would help the church, "to enjoy full religious freedom and to make an even greater contribution to society."
The Jawa Report: Dutch TV: The miserable fate of Christians in "moderate" TurkeyMuslims in the West constantly squeal about the supposed intolerance and mistreatment in Europe and the US. Switzerland, for example, recently imposed a ban on the construction of minarets. There were angry reactions in many Islamic countries, including Turkey. But what happens when the shoe is on the other foot? How tolerant are Turks towards the Christian minority in their own country? Follow the link to see the video report.
Turkey Christians disappointed: government won’t protect them
Hopes for improvements in the rights of religious communities in Turkey in 2009 have once more come to nothing, notes Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic Charity Mission in a commentary for Forum 18 News Service.
Alevi Muslims broke off formal talks with the government over denial of their rights. A high-profile lunch with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August 2009, attended by five religious minority leaders, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, was followed by a visit to two Greek Orthodox sites. But no concrete improvements ensued.
Intolerance promoted by Turkey's mainstream media has markedly reduced, but local and ultranationalist newspapers and websites still promote such intolerance. No verdict was reached in 2009 in the long-running trial over the 2007 murder of three Protestants in Malatya, or over the long-running attempts to prosecute two Protestants accused of "defaming Islam". Dr Oehring argues for a fundamental change in the attitudes of both society and the government.
Small 'home church’ survives in Istanbul - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic ReviewUnlike Turkey’s Christian communities that often belong to a certain Christian sect, one church founded mostly by Turkish converts from Islam eschews any denominational categorization. A member of the community says other Christian groups are far from the true path of Christianity. The church has asked the government for land, a building and security, but so far its request has gone unanswered
In the middle of Istanbul, there is a “home church” with people from various parts of the world praying together in joy. Composed of worshippers from around the world, there are Turks, Kurds, Japanese, Chinese, Brits and Canadians inside.
This “church,” on the entrance floor of an apartment building, is connected to the basement by some stairs. The community goes downstairs to the kitchen after the service to have soup or tea and chat with fellow parishioners.
The “home church” is called Dirisu and was named after a Bible verse. Its doors were opened to the community with the permission of the Istanbul Governor in 1999.
Almost all of the church’s founding members were Turks or Kurds and came from Muslim families. The church’s elders – in reference to their founding membership in the church rather than their age – said they are generally people who became Christian in their 30s because of an inner emptiness.
Baydemir and his family from the Pervari district of Siirt in Southeast Anatolia were Catholic, yet he never saw a church building before he turned 20, only encountering one in Mardin during the 1960s.
“We were one of the few Christian families in Siirt but they alienated us because of our beliefs,” said Baydemir. “I am not blaming anyone because they were ignorant.” When asked why he chose to be a missionary instead of following Catholicism, Baydemir said: “All the churches, including the Catholic Church, are full of rules. I had an undefined emptiness inside me; I filled it at this church. I have learned that Christianity is not only a denomination but a lifestyle.”
Religious minorities face no discrimination in Turkey, says head of religious affairs - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic ReviewThe head of Turkey's Directorate of Religious Affairs said on Saturday he did not believe that religious minorities living in Turkey faced any problems regarding their religious services and practices or the training and appointment of their religious leaders.
"However, if there are any problems, they should be solved," said Ali Bardakoğlu, president of the Directorate of Religious Affairs, in an exclusive interview with the Anatolia news agency.
Bardakoğlu also said that the issue of reopening the Halki seminary should be solved within the context of freedom of religion.
Expressing his directorate's support for religious freedoms, Bardakoğlu said, "If we only respect those who think and believe like us, we will turn life on earth to hell."
Bardakoğlu also said, everybody had the right to exercise the belief they wanted.
Patriarch Bartholomew Feels "Crucified" - 60 Minutes - CBS NewsWould it surprise you to learn that one of the world's most important Christian leaders, second only to the pope, lives in a country where 99 percent of the population is Muslim? His name is Bartholomew, and he is the patriarch of 300 million Orthodox Christians. He lives in Istanbul, Turkey, the latest in a line of patriarchs who have resided there since before there was a Turkey, since the centuries following the death of Jesus Christ.
That's when Istanbul was called Constantinople and was the most important city in the Christian world.
