A report of the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches also denounces that foreign Christians were deported, refused entry to Turkey or denied residence permits and visas in 2024.
The German Protestant Church of Beyoğlu, Instanbul, Turkey. / Photo: [link]Tripadvisor[/link], CC0.
According to the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches’ latest Human Rights Violation report, in 2024 there was “an increase from the previous year in both written and oral hate speech directed at Protestant Christian individuals or institutions”.
Although religious freedom is protected by the Turkish Constitution, Protestant Christians experienced hate crimes “due solely to their faith”.
Among the most serious incidents was an armed attack on the Salvation Church association building in Istanbul on New Year’s Eve.
The assailant shot from a car and shouted to the people who were celebrating the New Year: “We will not allow you to brainwash our Muslim youth! Oh infidels, you will be defeated and swept up into hell”.
Many churches were targeted with gunfire, vandalism and threats.
Didim Light Church was denied permission to distribute brochures, and officials prevented Antalya Bible Church “multiple times” from inviting Turks to Easter and Christmas celebrations.
The report shows other cases of hate crime, such as the dismissal of a Christian English teacher from a private school; the burning of a New Testament.
The report also speaks of attempts by the police to bribe two church members to become informants, among many others.
The report denounces an increased use of social media to insult Protestant Christians.
"We encounter speech filled with insults and profanity directed at official church social media accounts, church leaders, Christianity, Christian values, and Christians in general," explains the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches.
The report states that all that “often originates from the activity of social media groups that cultivate hatred against Christians and have targeted Christian websites and social media accounts”.
According to the report, “foreign Christians were deported, refused entry to Turkey or denied residence permits and visas” in 2024.
Because of that, “many congregations were left in a difficult situation, and there continues to be a great need for religious workers”, it points out, adding that they were mainly from the U.S., UK, South Korea, Germany, other European countries, Latin America and other regions.
“Most of them have settled in our country for many years and live here with their families. They have no criminal record, investigation or court documents concerning them”, says the report.
This situation “has exposed a huge humanitarian problem. Having someone from a family receive an unexpected entry ban shatters family unity and leaves everyone in the family facing a chaotic situation”.
In addition to the lack of foreign belivers, “in 2024, the laws in Turkey continued to block the possibility of training Christian clergy and the opening of schools to provide religious education for the members of church communities in any way”, reads the report.
“The right to train and develop religious leaders is one of the foundational pillars of the freedom of religion and belief”, it stresses.
Another important problem for the Protest churches in Turkey is the difficulty to obtain a legal status to be registered properly.
The report points out that Protestants in the country number 214 fellowships of varying sizes, with most located in Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, but just 152 have gained legal status as “religious foundations, church associations, or representative branches” .
Protestant communities without legal status face challenges finding places to worship, and rents for them are often “unusually high”. Furthermore, they “miss benefits such as free electricity or tax exemptions from authorities”.
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