Persecution of Christians in Turkey: the disrespect of Turkish authorities toward Turkey’s Christian heritage is ongoing, as is its calculated hostility toward the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Christian community in Turkey. The Order urgently asks Turkey’s government to heed the message of mutual respect preached by His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and allow the Armenian Church to choose its Patriarch in accord with its own canons.
The Order also reiterates our hope that the international human rights community will direct its attention to the plight of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and of all Christians and other religious minorities in Turkey, and that the Turkish government will heed the repeated calls to grant full religious freedom to its embattled Christian minority.
For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Turkey, see here.
“Armenians Protest Patriarchal Election Process,” International Christian Concern, December 6, 2019:
12/06/2019 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – The roadmap established by the Armenian Christian community seeking to elect the successor of their recently deceased patriarch was supposed to have achieved an outcome by mid-December. However, Turkey’s interference with the church’s electoral process has led to several negative reactions.
The Armenian Church is based in Istanbul, but has congregants spread throughout the world. Turkey’s latest interference in the electoral process involves the decision that the government will not allow international candidates to seek nomination for the electoral process. Turkey’s government has a long history of trying to control the patriarchy for political reasons.
The Surp Yerrortutyun Armenian church Foundation in Istanbul has now filed a complaint against the government (Interior Ministry and governor’s office) on the basis that international candidates cannot receive patriarchal nomination. The court deferred the compliant, saying that the compliant should be filed against the enterprising board who makes electoral decisions….
