"Manfred, they are talking about you. Maybe you should put it away," my friend said to me quietly in the metro on the way under the Bosphorus Strait that separates the Asian part of Istanbul and Turkey from the European part. She was talking about the cross hanging around my neck, which had caught the eye of the older couple further down the compartment. They stared at it suspiciously and talked about my faith. We were in Turkey to visit the Christians and there was no need to attract too much attention, so I discreetly packed it away.
Even though as a Western tourist I am expected by the Turks to be Christian, the presence of the cross was enough to make them wonder and distance themselves. It shows that it's hard to be a Christian in Turkey. It has far greater consequences than having to hide your cross in the crowds of the metro. That's what everyone I talk to says. local Christians and the reports I have read.
Turkey has a special place in my heart and I want to take you on a journey through history and around some of the Christians in Turkey, so you can hear for yourself what it's like to be a Christian in Turkey.
Historical retrospective
Historically, Turkey has had a large Christian minority - after all, this is where Paul sent many of his letters, and what is now Istanbul, then Constantinople, was for many years the center of the entire Eastern Church. Hagia Sophia towered over the city, where the patriarchs fought theological battles with the Catholic Pope in Rome, and the church flourished and spread from here to the rest of the Middle East, Russia, Central Asia and all the way to China.
The Golden Age ended when the Eastern Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, collapsed in 1453 when Sultan Mehmet and the Ottomans took Constantinople. It was a powerful empire characterized by skilled political and military leaders who were all ardent Sunni Muslims. Through conquest, they spread their version of Islam further and further until 200 years later they stood at the city walls of Vienna on the doorstep of Europe. A mighty empire of many millions of people that stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east, to Algeria in the west and all the way up to Vienna.
The Ottomans did not forcibly convert non-Muslims, so many non-Muslims, including Christians, still lived in the territories. They were organized according to the Islamic Millet system, where they had some autonomy, but the non-Muslim inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire were nevertheless seen as second-class citizens who also had to pay an additional tax.
This attitude runs deep in the Turkish population - both Muslim and Christian. That it is the Muslims who have the power, while Christians are tolerated on Muslim terms. It affects the lives of Christians right up to modern-day Turkey.
To understand why things are the way they are, history has a lot to teach us.
Modern Turkey emerged in 1923 in the wake of Mustafa Kemal - better known as Atatürk's - War of Independence after World War I. Progressive forces had been simmering for some time and the modernization and democratization of Turkey had been initiated by the intellectual, progressive and liberal part of the Young Turks movement. An internal power struggle against the nationalist and radical wing ended up winning and shaping the new Turkish state. It was with Islam as the kit of society, but still a moderate interpretation of Islam and in theory many democratic principles and rights - also for non-Muslims. But practice was different.
The following four snapshots from the 20th century will give an idea of how this practice has been different and how the Turkish state has historically treated minorities.
The Armenian Genocide 1915
The lands of the Armenians were taken by the Ottomans in the early 1500s and for the next four hundred years they were part of the Ottoman Empire alongside many other people groups in the great empire. But the 18th century brought economic and political challenges to the Ottoman Empire, which began to experience increasing challenges in keeping the empire together. The empire rallied around the Turks as the central group, and minorities faced increasing harassment and discrimination.
In the 1890s under Sultan Abdul Hamid II, there were several physical attacks on Armenians, who were seen as the kingdom's scapegoats. According to the Danish Institute for International Studies, between 100,000 and 200,000 Armenians lost their lives. But that was only the tip of the iceberg. When the Young Turks succeeded in gaining support for a series of sweeping reforms in 1908, Armenians publicly and clearly backed the reforms. The reforms gave the religious minorities legal security, status and rights on a par with the Turks, but they were short-lived. A counter-revolution swept across the country and in many places, Christian minorities such as the Armenians were attacked. In Adana, 20-30,000 Armenians, as well as a few thousand Assyrians and Greeks, were killed.
It was a foretaste of what was to come from 1915-1918, when 75% of the Ottoman Empire's 2 million Armenians were killed.
On April 24, 1915, the nationalist government of Young Turks arrested 250 Armenian leaders in Istanbul - priests, politicians, journalists and intellectuals. They were secretly taken to deserted areas outside the city and executed. In the army, the Armenian soldiers were disarmed and forced to work in labor battalions where they worked so hard that many of them died from lack of food, sleep and medicine. Those who survived were executed. Armenian leaders across the country were arrested and executed, and the remaining women, elderly and children were left without leaders or men capable of bearing arms. So when the Turkish government ordered the relocation of the Armenians to the south of the empire in what is now Syria, they could not resist and went on a death march through the desert to Syria. Here they were attacked by pro-government groups and by 1918, 1.5 million Armenians had lost their lives. In Turkey, some Turks had tried to save their Armenian neighbors and friends, but many had participated in the attacks, taking over Armenian buildings, land and property.
To this day, Turkey has not recognized the events as a genocide, but refers to it as a relocation, if it is referred to at all. "The amnesia that Turkey has for their past has a great effect on today's Turkey, affecting democracy and human rights," writes human rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz in the report Religious minorities of Turkey - an evaluation from the perspective of human rights.
The economic attack of 1942
In the summer of 1942, Turkey, like the rest of the world, was economically affected by World War II. The Turkish government issued a special war tax. But before it was published, the state news agencies and newspapers had published a series of articles that negatively portrayed non-Muslim Turks as thieves, robbers, black marketeers and war profiteers.
On September 12, 1942, the Ministry of Finance sent out a request to regional offices to obtain lists of all assets held by the country's minorities. The country's banks were also asked to send statements of the minorities' accounts, while the intelligence service gathered information on the business activities of non-Muslim Turks. So when the money was recovered, 83% of the extraordinary tax bill ended up being paid by non-Muslims. The citizen was given 15 days to pay the amount and if that was not possible, assets, shops and homes were confiscated and the citizen was sent to a labor camp if there was still not enough money. Several thousand people ended up in labor camps, but none of them were Muslims.
The long-term consequences of the tax were that the rich minorities became less rich, while the Muslim population took market share, homes, shops and jobs from the non-Muslims who fled or were forced to move due to the economic consequences.
The process shows how a general law can be angled and implemented in practice to affect the Christian minority.
The September attacks of 1955
On September 6-7, 1955, thousands of shops and houses belonging to non-Muslims in Turkey were vandalized and smashed. According to researcher Dilek Güven, more than 100,000 Muslims took to the streets and attacked Christians in particular.
4214 homes, 1004 shops and businesses, 73 churches, 1 synagogue, 2 monasteries, 26 schools and 5317 buildings such as factories, hospitals and inns were damaged. Several hundred women were raped, 300 injured and 11-15 lost their lives in the riots.
As in 1942, the government had laid the groundwork in the media leading up to the attack. In the 1950s, there was unrest in Cyprus between Greece and Turkey. The newspapers Hürriyet, Yeni Sabah and Gece Postasi had published articles in the days leading up to the attack that linked Christians and other non-Muslims negatively to the developments. The situation was a ticking time bomb, and on September 6, the spark ignited the powder keg. A bomb had gone off in Kemal Atatürk's birthplace in Thessaloniki, and although it was later revealed that someone from the Turkish consulate had planted the bomb, the average Turk had no doubt - the Christians were behind it. The news was spread through the Istanbul Express in particular, which was able to print 300,000 newspapers that day instead of the usual circulation of 20-30,000. Kemal Cengiz believes that the fact that the newspaper was ready for such a large circulation means that they had received a convenient tip from the intelligence services.
Police and security forces were absent from the streets that very day, and the incited masses attacked all houses and shops with Greek-sounding names - some had even been marked with GMR - Gayrimüslim Rum, meaning non-Muslim Greek.
Journalist Mehmet Ali Birand was a teenager in 1955, but still remembers the events clearly.
"I was 14 years old and on my way to an exam. When I walked up from Karaköy, I was shocked. The main street looked like a war zone with broken glass and goods all over the street. The shops were completely smashed and clothes, books, office supplies, stoves, chandeliers and much more were scattered everywhere. It was like the apocalypse. I was just a kid and didn't understand much, but I noticed one thing. While some shops had been smashed and looted, some were untouched. The untouched ones had Turkish flags hanging in the windows, while the doors of the smashed shops had Greek-sounding names," he says according to author Rifat N. Bali.
In 1991, a retired member of the army, General Sabri Yirmibesoglu, took responsibility for the events in an interview. He was a member of the National Security Council, head of one of the army's intelligence services and head of the special forces. In the interview, he said that "September 6-7 was the merit and formidable organization of the security forces. It accomplished its purpose."
September 6-7 was another example of the Turkish government's opposition to Christians, among others, and their willingness to act on it.
The murders in 2006-2007
The lack of legal security and protection for the Christian minority had serious consequences in four cases in 2006 and 2007. Members of the Christian minority were attacked in four different cities and five people were killed. Once again, the government failed to protect the Christian minority.
On February 5, 2006, a 16-year-old boy stood up and shot Roman Catholic priest Andrea Santoro during a mass in Trabzon. The boy was convicted of the murder, but the investigation was quickly closed down as the prosecution decided early on that he had acted alone.
11 months later, Turkish-Armenian journalist and editor-in-chief Hrant Dink was gunned down in front of the Agos newspaper in Istanbul in broad daylight. This time, Turkish human rights lawyers pressured the prosecution to investigate further.
While the trial was underway, another attack occurred. This time it was in Malatya, where the target was the Christian publishing house Zirve. Here, two Turkish Christians, Ugur Yüksel and Necati Aydin, were brutally tortured and then murdered along with German Tilman Geske.
The trials for the murders of Zirve and Dink showed that they were well planned. There was a network that had been behind the attacks, which in the following months attacked several locations. In Izmir, priest Adriano Franchini was stabbed but survived, and in several parts of the country police prevented attacks. During the trials, it emerged that the intelligence services had information about plans to kill Dink more than a year before the murder and that the perpetrators in Malatya had been planning the attack for over half a year.
"It's inconceivable that the intelligence services didn't know about the plans when they have taken so long to make. In addition, both Hrant Dink and those murdered in the Malatya massacre were closely monitored by multiple intelligence agencies for years and months before their deaths. It would have been impossible for these intelligence services to monitor the victims so closely without also noticing the plans against them," writes Orhan Kemal Cengiz.
But the charges were laid against several of the alleged Gülen movement members, who were already disliked by the government. After that, the case was buried, and although the assassins have been punished, the police happened to be absent from all the attacks, just as they were in September 1955. The same was true when South Korean Jinwook Kim was killed on the streets of Diyarbekir in November 2019. The Turkish government and police have at best turned their backs while the Christian minority was attacked.
Life in modern-day Turkey
As the historical record has shown, it is difficult to be a non-Muslim in Turkey. It has been for hundreds of years and it still is today. Discrimination and resistance is sometimes overt and direct, while other times it is more covert.
An example of clear and direct discrimination was when President Erdogan turned Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020. The very decision to turn the former cathedral into a mosque is a show of power and an example of the lack of respect for the Christian minority in the country, for whom Hagia Sophia is very important.
And during a corona briefing in the country on May 4, 2020, Erdogan said that "we will not allow terrorist leftover of the sword (remnants of terrorists who did not fall by the sword ed.) to carry out terrorist activities. Their numbers have diminished, but they still exist."
Immediately afterwards, the Armenian minority reacted with anger against the president's statements. Journalist Aline Ozinian wrote: "For those who do not know what terrorist leftover of the sword means, they are Armenian "terrorists" who survived the genocide and were not killed by the sword. So what does "terrorist" mean? Well, it changes daily: it could be a journalist, a civil society representative, a writer, a doctor or a mother of a beautiful child."
Turkey 2021
I am beginning to understand Turkish Christians better and better. For nWhen the president talks down to religious minorities in a country with the history that Turkey has, it's impossible for it not to trickle down into society and create resistance and persecution against Christians on a daily basis.
So it makes sense that Berat*, a volunteer on one of the projects supported by donors to the Danish European Mission, is nervous about doing her military service. After all, it's a lot of months in a tough environment.
Now I understand why Ayaz* was so nervous about finishing his studies. How was he going to get a job after becoming a Christian?
In his youth, he was part of a radical Islamist group in his hometown. They talked about living their lives for Allah and it became more and more extreme. Ayaz was the group's communicator and wrote propaganda for them. Until one day he came across some Christians online and started discussing with them. It took a long time, but one day he opened the Bible and started comparing it to the Quran. He became convinced that the Quran was a false book, and three years and many conversations later, Ayaz became a Christian.
Ayaz's life wasn't threatened when he converted, but he lost many of his friends when he came to faith. And when he finished his studies, he found himself unemployed. Because no one in the public sector would hire him. And this is exactly the kind of persecution that Christians in the more westernized, secular cities like Izmir, Ankara and Istanbul experience, says Caleb*, who works with Turkish Christians.
"For most people, the problems are minimal in the day-to-day life in the big cities. This is also where many of those who come to faith these years first encounter the gospel or a Christian. They move to the city from smaller towns to study, and if they become Christians, many of them find that their family and friends back home disown them. Many are beaten up by former friends in an attempt to get them to abandon their Christian faith. In some places you are in danger of being martyred, but it's rare that it gets that bad. However, there is constant pressure from family and friends, it can be difficult to get a job, apartments can become more expensive, and you are barred from holding public office, being an army officer and the like," says Caleb, who has also seen those interested in the faith being married off to a devout Muslim who has then decided that the wife can no longer attend church.
Joshua* has worked in Turkey for many years and he recognizes the picture.
"The government doesn't directly persecute a Muslim who has changed faith. But if your name is Muslim and you're Christian, you will get raised eyebrows, questions and negative comments. Because it's frowned upon. As a non-Muslim, you will be considered disloyal to the state and therefore will not be able to have a military career, become a school teacher, work in a Muslim organization or be in the public sector. The public sector is known for having well-paid jobs that are almost impossible to get fired from and with a relatively low workload. In the private sector, there are many jobs and many would also like to hire Christians, so there are opportunities, but there are also bosses who don't want to hire Christians. Therefore, many Christians start their own business or take a long time to find a job where the boss accepts their faith.
But otherwise, the pressure is clearly greatest from the family. Often the Christian will be kicked out of the family or at least distanced from them. But sometimes it can also be self-inflicted," says Josva with a smile. "The new Christian sometimes reacts harshly against Islam and is then kicked out of the house. One of the Christians I know was eventually allowed to be part of the family again without giving up his faith. He just had to apologize. I was stunned when he told me, but then he laughed and said that when he came to faith, he had said all sorts of nasty things to them about Islam and their faith, and he had to apologize for that. Once he had done that, he was part of the family again. So it can happen that way too. The most common persecution is family and social pressure, but many find a way around it."
One of those who is finding her way in it is Nour*. She is a volunteer at one of the projects supported by the Danish European Mission's donors and has been a Christian for a few years. But she hasn't yet told her parents about it because she's afraid of how they will react.
"They are Muslims, and although in many aspects of life they are not so radical Muslims, it is unacceptable to them if their daughter leaves Islam. I know they will be disappointed and angry about it, but I don't know what else could happen if I tell them," she says.
Nour's family, like many Turkish families, are Muslim, but without practicing Islam.
"When I was a child, I didn't believe in any God, and Islam had very little place in my everyday life. When I became a teenager, that changed. I was sad and depressed about my life and started looking for answers and the meaning of life."
The neighbors were practicing Muslims, and Nour was inspired by their sincere relationship with God, put on hijab and applied to a religious high school.
"My neighbors seemed so happy, so I thought it must be because of their faith. My parents were very opposed to me taking my faith so seriously that I opted out of an academically strong high school to learn Arabic and more about Islam. But that's what I wanted to do, and in high school the faith unfolded for me. I learned more about Allah, Muhammad and the Quran. I knew the main points before, but at school I learned more details. But something was wrong. Because even though I was learning more and more, I wasn't gaining more faith or a stronger relationship with God. Instead, I became more and more convinced that Islam was not true. By learning more, I was actually pushed away from Islam. I no longer wanted to be a Muslim once I knew the details of the faith. I met an Allah who treated man as a lab rat and played with us. At least that's how I felt," recalls Nour, who identified herself as an atheist at the end of high school.
There are many new Christians in Turkey who don't go straight from Islam to Christianity, but first distance themselves and become either atheist or agnostic before opening their eyes to Jesus. But even though Nour didn't want to be a Muslim anymore, she didn't dare break with Islam. Because what would it mean for her family and social life? What would the consequences be?
"I was thinking like an atheist, but I kept the hijab on, professed to be Muslim and finished high school. At university, a friend of mine made some Christian friends among the international students and she took me to a youth event. I was curious and asked her to get me a Bible, and even though she was Muslim, she got me a Bible and I started reading. At the youth event, I met Christians for the first time. They were so friendly and welcoming that I thought they must be fake. They were simply too friendly for it to be true. But I was curious, so I kept coming to the group and joined a Bible study group where we met several times a week to read the Bible together. I had so many questions, but they couldn't always give me answers. But we kept going and over time it started to make sense to me. I started to take off the hijab, and even though I couldn't believe in Jesus, I knew that Islam was false. I couldn't find God and was getting more and more frustrated, so I started praying, hoping it would clarify something. I sat down at my desk and put a pencil in front of me while I prayed, "God, if you're here, you can make the pencil fly." It never flew, so I started to add: "God, you may be God, but I need a sign to believe in you." Still nothing happened and I left the Christian youth group. I was afraid that they would manipulate me or influence me negatively. Maybe I just wanted to become a Christian for their sake? I thought I needed to find God on my own, so I stopped coming to the events or hanging out with them.
In my search for God, I continued to read and pray, and over time my prayer and my faith changed. Now I no longer prayed for the pencil to fly, but every night I prayed: God, I believe you. Jesus, you are my savior. But I need a sign - show me that you are there."
The youth group continued to meet, but Nour wasn't part of it. It was too hard and she still didn't believe she had found God. But four months later, she bumped into one of the Christians from the youth group who asked her how things were going.
"I told her my thoughts and said that I believed in God and in Jesus, but that I needed a sign to become a Christian. She was very surprised and asked: "Do you believe in Jesus as your savior?" I answered "yes". "Are you sure?" She asked. "Yes, he is my savior," I replied. "Then you are already a Christian," she said and gave me a big smile. Over time, my thoughts had been changed by prayer and Bible reading. I didn't quite understand it, so when I got home that night, I lay awake all night thinking. I needed proof that God was really God, but really, he had already proven himself by changing my life, my thoughts and my world. He created a faith in me and that was proof enough for me. I accepted him as my savior and became a Christian. Now I also knew myself that I was a Christian."
Nour's conversion brought cheers from her Christian friends, but the same cheers are unlikely to be heard from her parents, who still don't know that their daughter has become a Christian.
"I'm not really scared, but I'm nervous about telling them. I'm probably more nervous about my parents' health if they find out that their daughter has become a Christian. But I will tell them when the time is right and I hope to be able to share it with them soon. My life has completely changed. When I was a Muslim, Allah was my boss, who tested me and to whom I had to submit. With God it's completely different. He is a loving father who loves me and who I can talk to. There is love and freedom with God, and that has set me free and saved me," she concludes, before going on to work to make the gospel known among Turks.
The future of the Turkish church
There are only a few thousand Christian converts in Turkey, and although the Turkish church is growing, it's slow. One of the big challenges is that people like Nour don't meet a flesh and blood Christian until they get to university - and some never meet a physical Christian. There are so few Christians in Turkey. That's why media missions is one of the best ways to spread the gospel. Danish European Mission's partners Sat-7, Kanal Hayat and Radio Shema all work to spread the gospel through TV, radio or social media. This can be Turkish Muslims' first encounter with Christianity and create an interest and curiosity for Jesus. The Christian radio and TV channels also become a place where interested people can write in and ask for more information.
"The media mission through radio, for example, which is a medium that is highly trusted by Turks, changes the mentality in the cities where the programs are broadcast over time. Here it legitimizes interest in Christianity and hundreds of thousands of Muslims listen to the Christian message over the airwaves," says Caleb, who sees radio as the first step on the path to faith and sees a growing interest in Jesus in Turkey.
"It's very much a friendship mission where you get to know people and through that, you get to talk about religion and faith. There is not so much modesty about faith, and I have experienced the Turks as open and interested. There is a burgeoning interest in these years, which comes from several things. Many young people feel that Islam is failing them or are disappointed by Erdogan and his Islamic regime. Then they become atheists or agnostics, and being close to them as a Christian and daring to ask the questions and have the difficult conversations is something that moves them. It's a unique time in these years when there is an openness in the country," he concludes.
I chew on these words while I find a hookah café where I can sit and try to sort out all the impressions and thoughts. "Nargile?" I ask, and am pointed towards a cozy café on the corner.
I'm sitting alone, enjoying the last of the afternoon sun, and I'm actually on my way home when three young people at the next table invite me to join them. One is Muslim, one is atheist and one is agnostic. When they hear that I'm a Christian, the atheist asks me if I know much about God? I know something, I answer them, and he exclaims loudly:
"Oh, that's great! I have so many questions!"
For the next three hours, the four of us sat around talking about faith, life, youth culture, Netflix, football, Jesus, Erdogan and whatever else was on our minds. Maybe a seed was planted that night? Who knows what will happen when they next meet a Christian?
There is an openness in Turkey, but new Christians are being pressured and foreign Christians are being monitored and kicked out of the country in increasing numbers. Since the start of 2019, more than 60 foreign Christians have been expelled from the country, and although there are still many, the government is pressuring them.
A lot is happening in Turkey these years. Both with the media mission growing and people coming to faith. But it's also hard to be a Christian in Turkey. I remember a Turkish proverb that Joshua told me when I met him: "A lake emerges drop by drop"
I want to go home and pray for perseverance and protection for the Turkish Christians and for revival in the country. For how much they need Jesus in the cradle of the church in Turkey!
