by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief
ISTANBUL, TURKEY (Worthy News) – Persecution against Christians in Muslim-majority Turkey has intensified, with attacks on churches, threats against believers, and the deportation of missionaries, according to a new rights report.
Advocacy group International Christian Concern (ICC) said incidents include a January shooting at Eskişehir Salvation Church, when a gunman fired at the building while it was empty, and another case at the end of 2024, when a man opened fire from his car at a Salvation Church association building in Istanbul.
“We will not allow you to brainwash our Muslim youth! Oh, infidels, you will be defeated and swept up into hell!” the shooter shouted, according to ICC.
The incidents add to a broader climate of hostility, watchdogs say. In early 2025, Turkey rose five places to 45th on Open Doors’ World Watch List, which ranks 50 countries where Christians face the most persecution for their faith.
Amid the reported incidents, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) urged the U.S. State Department to place Turkey on its Special Watch List for religious freedom violations.
In March, the World Evangelical Alliance (WEA), Open Doors International, and other groups raised concerns at the United Nations Human Rights Council about reported restrictions on registering and recognizing non-Muslim places of worship.
CHURCHES TARGETED
“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,” said Pastor Ramazan Arkan of Antalya Evangelical Churches.
Less than 1 percent of Turkey’s population identifies as Christian, while roughly 99 percent of its 85 million people are Muslim.
The ruling government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan promotes an Islamist-rooted political identity, with policies critics say have increasingly sidelined Christians and other religious minorities.
Under Erdoğan’s leadership, once-symbolic churches such as Hagia Sophia and Chora in Istanbul were reconverted into mosques, moves critics view as signaling Turkey’s shift away from religious pluralism.
The report noted that foreign missionaries are increasingly targeted.
Residence permits are not renewed, with many labeled as security threats, Christians say. Fearing deportation, at least some reportedly avoid church activities altogether.
CHURCHES CLOSED
Local Christians also face online abuse and harassment, Worthy News learned.
“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 said in its latest Human Rights Report.
As a result, several churches have shut their doors, while more Christian leaders are voluntarily leaving the country. Many congregations are left without pastors.
There continues to be a great need for Christian workers, the Protestant Churches’ report concluded, highlighting what it called a growing spiritual vacuum in Turkey.
Turkey is formally a candidate for European Union membership and is a key member of the NATO military alliance, factors that advocacy groups say make its human rights record especially significant for Western policymakers.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
More Worthy News
Jerusalem will host a high-level trilateral summit on Monday as Israel, Greece, and Cyprus move to deepen security, energy, and strategic cooperation amid growing concern over Turkey’s expanding military posture in the eastern Mediterranean.
In an emotionally charged appeal, Israel’s opposition leader Yair Lapid urged Jews worldwide not to surrender to hatred after at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured in what officials and Jewish leaders described as one of the deadliest antisemitic attacks against Jews abroad in years.
The U.S. military carried out massive air and drone strikes against more than 70 Islamic State (ISIS) targets across central and eastern Syria, U.S. officials said, following a deadly December 13 attack on American personnel.
The president of war-torn Ukraine says the United States has proposed a format for peace talks that would place Ukraine and Russia at the same table — but he doubts such a meeting would bring real progress.
Budget watchdogs are sounding the alarm as the U.S. hit an unfortunate fiscal milestone in fiscal year 2025: government spending on debt interest payments alone topped $1 trillion this year.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ action to bar “sex-rejecting” transgender procedures for minors has met with approval from groups that aim to protect children from harmful ideology, with some calling the move “long overdue,” stating that taxpayers should not be forced to pay for procedures that lack proven benefits.
After hours of tense negotiations, European Union leaders agreed to provide Ukraine with a 90 billion euro loan (about $100 billion) to meet the wartorn nation’s urgent financial needs. However, they failed to reach a consensus on whether the loan should be secured using Russia’s frozen assets held in Europe.