TURKEY: Turkish authorities crack down on Christianity; deny church land for worship space
– Authorities in Türkiye ignore requests from the Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation to use new land for a worship center; Foundation’s legal challenge struck down by the Diyarbakir 4th Administrative Court.
– The Foundation, founded in 2019, forced to meet in space that is too small for their 100+ congregation.
– ADF International supporting appeal, efforts for religious freedom in Türkiye.
ADF International(12.07.2024)- In the midst of increasing government hostility against Christians in Türkiye, the Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation has been prohibited from acquiring land zoned for religious buildings for a new worship center. Authorities and government officials continually ignored and turned down their requests, claiming they lack the authority to grant them.
The Church, forced to meet in a space that is too small for their 100+ congregation, presented a legal challenge in order to secure new land, but the challenge was struck down by the court. ADF International is supporting the group’s appeal.
“What we are seeing in Türkiye is a troubling display of blatant, faith-based discrimination against Christians,” stated Kelsey Zorzi, ADF International’s Director of Advocacy for Global Religious Freedom. “The Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation is simply asking to use land that has already been designated for religious use, in order to build a facility large enough to safely accommodate their congregation; but authorities keep finding ways to deny their request since they are Christians. The land in question has been specifically designated for religious use, but the government is discriminating against the church because it is not associated with the state’s preferred religion. The systemic and bureaucratic persecution is not only in direct violation of the basic human right to religious freedom but also Türkiye’s international human rights obligations. The discrimination must stop.”
Pastor Ahmet Güvener of the Diyarbakiar Protestant Church Foundation on the case:
Diyarbakir Protestant Church
Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation was founded in 2019 in Diyarbakir, a major city in the Southeast, by Protestant Turks and Kurds. The foundation serves over 100 Protestant Christians in Diyarbakir. One of its primary purposes is to host a Protestant church in Diyarbakir, but due to local zoning codes, it lacks proper meeting space to accommodate its parishioners.
As is frequently the case in Turkey, the applicants were met with a bureaucratic maze in which state institutions passed their applications back and forth, claiming to lack the authority to grant the land usage request. Under Turkish law, urban planning documents dictate where churches may be built, and thus, the applicants must receive approval to use a location designated for religious purposes to build a church. The court has told the church leaders that they can simply purchase undesignated land and apply for a religious use designation, however such a request has never been granted in Türkiye.
Orhan Kemal Cengiz, the lead attorney on the case in Türkiye and ADF International allied attorney, said “Having a legally recognized worship place in Türkiye has always been a major issue. This problem, in my opinion, causes serious infringements of one of the most fundamental human rights, namely, freedom of religion. Unfortunately, Christians face numerous legal and practical barriers when they wish to establish a legally recognized worship place in Türkiye.”
The Foundation has submitted numerous petitions to different authorities with no resolution. In 2023, the Foundation brought a legal challenge to pursue using a designated worship plot to build a church that would meet the congregation’s capacity needs. In 2024, the Court ruled against the church. ADF International and the Foundation are planning to appeal the Court’s decision.
Faith-based discrimination in Türkiye
Türkiye has a population of roughly 83,000,000 with an estimated 99% of the population identifying as Muslim. There are approximately 170,000 Christians in Türkiye. Although Türkiye does not have a constitutionally recognized state religion, its government is increasingly marked by Islamization and nationalism, which creates challenges for religious minorities, particularly Christians.
It is estimated that around 185 foreign Protestant ministers living in Türkiye have been deported or effectively banned from reentering the country since 2018. Expatriate Christian ministers are usually deported or banned from entering Türkiye by a decision of the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the Turkish Intelligence. The ministers in question are usually issued a certain code which leads to the termination or the non-renewal of their residence permits. Other codes prohibit foreign clergy from entering the country without prior permission. The code designation is usually the result of Turkish Intelligence claiming that the Christian minister in question is a threat to national security. The files of the Turkish Intelligence are not made available to the attorneys challenging the deportation decisions, making it difficult to effectively defend their clients in the national courts and resulting in domestic court losses across the board.
Türkiye has also shut down the Protestant seminaries, forcing the country’s Christians to rely more heavily on foreign missionaries with seminary training from outside of Türkiye. The entry bans on foreign missionaries, therefore, are creating a stranglehold on trained church leaders in the country.
ADF International has supported the legal challenges of numerous foreign Christians who have received N-82 code cases, including David Byle. David was forced to leave Türkiye in 2018 after he and his family of 7 had called it home for more than 19 years. The authorities alleged Byle was a threat to public order and security despite him successfully challenging previous charges brought against him. After leaving the country, the authorities imposed a permanent re-entry ban on David, something he only discovered upon trying to return home to his family. Exiled from Türkiye, the Byles now reside in Germany.
The missionary couple Pam and David Wilson have a similar story of expulsion after living in Türkiye for nearly four decades. In their case, however, they were assigned a G87 code. The code labels them as a “threat to security” and is normally reserved for terrorists.
Recently, the highest court in Türkiye issued a decision supporting the government on cases banning 9 foreign Christian workers from the country under “N-82” codes designating them “risks to national security”.