Turkey, a country where in Europe with a majority Muslim population, is fast becoming one hotbed for Christians. The Christian population in that country has continued to decline. According to the BBC, the Christian population declined from 20–25 percent in 1914 to 3–5.5 percent in 1927. Today, the population is far less than one percent. There are said to be around 200 thousand to 320 thousand Christians in the country presently.
Although the country’s constitution defines it as a secular state and guarantees the freedom of conscience, religious belief, and conviction, President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is systematically encouraging suppression of Christianity. For instance, his government continued the disallowing of the Greek Orthodox community to train clergy at the Halki Seminary, remained unresolved. Erdogan has also severally called for the conversion of the historic Greek Orthodox basilica, Hagia Sophia, to a mosque. The basilica has since 1935 held the legal status as a museum.
He also plans to allow Muslim prayers at the historic basilica, a move that may eventually set the site for a full conversion of the Christian site, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site into a mosque. But being a World Heritage Site, the Turkish government move would need the approval of UNESCO. But a leader of the Grand Unity Party (BBP), Mustafa Destici, described the Hagia Sophia as “a symbol of conquest. In our opinion, the reopening of Hagia Sophia, far from being just a necessity and laying claim to a relic of conquest, is an issue of sovereignty and independence.”
His move on the Hagia Sophia is fueled by the 2019 Turkish court decision permitting the Chora (Kariye) Museum, a former Greek Orthodox Church, to be converted back into a mosque.
The iron fist of the Turkish government is not unnoticed by the international community. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom in its 2020 annually report on Turkey, recommended to the US government that the country should be included in the US Department of State’s Special Watch list for engaging or tolerating several violation of religious freedom pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act.
The Commission also recommended that the US government should direct it’s embassy in Ankara and it’s consulates in Istanbul and in Adana to “track religious communities efforts to open, regain, renovate and protect places of worship and other religious sites of spiritual, cultural and historic importance, and work with the Turkish government to protect such sites.”
