“Victims of religious oppression in Turkey shared their stories at an event on religious freedom at the European Parliament where the speakers suggested that political and social atrocities in that country were behind the Christian population’s decline from 20% to a mere 0.2% over the last century. The victims highlighted atrocities against Christian minorities committed by the Turkish government and parts of society, according to the human rights group ADF International, which held the event this week in partnership with the group European Conservatives and Reformists. Among those who testified at Wednesday’s event in Brussels, ‘Freedom of Religion in Türkiye,’ was Mark Smith, a Christian missionary who was expelled from the country in 2020 after living there for over a decade. The Turkish government has expelled at least 60 foreign Christian missionaries and their families since 2020, according to the religious freedom group Open Doors, which says Christians in Turkey experience ‘incredible pressure from very strong–and increasing–religious nationalism’ in the country. Turkey has a long history of Christian persecution, and its government still refuses to admit that the Ottoman Turks committed genocide of Christian Armenians in 1915. Turkey is 99% Muslim, according to its own statistics.”
“Victims of religious oppression in Turkey,” Christian Post, Oct. 14, 2022
