In recent years, persecution against Christians in Turkey has intensified.
Following this trend, last year saw attacks on churches at both its start and end. In January, a man shot at Eskişehir Salvation Church, though no one was inside. At the end of 2024, a man near a Salvation Church association building in Istanbul fired rounds at the building from his car.
“We will not allow you to brainwash our Muslim youth!” the man shouted from his car. “Oh, infidels, you will be defeated and swept up into hell!”
Amid these incidents, Christian organizations, including International Christian Concern (ICC), recognized the emerging trend late last year. Then, earlier this year, Turkey jumped five spots to No. 45 on Open Door’s World Watch List, which ranks the hardest places to be a Christian.
Due to the government’s consistent violations of religious freedom, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) released a statement calling for the U.S. Department of State to place Turkey on its Special Watch List.
In March, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Open Doors International, and several other Christian organizations met during the 58th Human Rights Council to discuss “Registration and Legal Status of Places of Worship: Negative Impacts on Religious Minorities.”
Ramazan Arkan, the pastor of the Antalya Evangelical Churches in Turkey, spoke during the meeting.
“Turkish churches face many difficulties and much discrimination, and unfortunately, when we have tried to address those issues with the Turkish authorities, we have most often been ignored because Christians are the religious minority in Turkey,” he said.
Missionaries are also being deported. Their residence permits are not being renewed, and they are labeled as possible security threats. Fearing they could be deported at any time, many foreign missionaries in Turkey avoid participating in church meetings or activities to go undetected.
Members of the Christian community are not free from hate crimes, either. Many of them face threats and social isolation online.
“We encounter speech filled with insults and profanity directed at official church social media accounts, church leaders, Christianity, Christian values, and Christians in general,” the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches stated in its latest Human Rights Report.
For these reasons, some churches have shut their doors, and more Christian leaders are voluntarily leaving the country.
Now, many congregations are left without spiritual leadership. The report leaves a statement of desperation and hope for more Christians to rise up in Turkey: “There continues to be a great need for religious workers.”
