Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Turkish Police close church for "offending society"
Bible Network News ^ | July 9, 2002 | Barbara G. Baker, Compass News

Posted on 09/27/2002 1:21:35 PM PDT by Destro

Turkish Police close church for "offending society"

ISTANBUL, Turkey, July 9, 2002 — Turkish security police ordered a Protestant Christian congregation meeting for 40 years in the southeastern port city of Iskenderun to close its doors in mid June, declaring the church had "no legal basis" and that its activities were harmful to society.

Pastor Yusuf Yasmin, 71, was served official notice by the security police of Hatay province to close and stop all activities of the New Testament Church in Iskenderun.

The abrupt two-page order was dated and delivered on June 14 to Yasmin, who was ordered to remove the church sign and list of worship services from the building by 5:00 p.m. the same day.

According to a copy of the directive obtained by Compass, the church was ordered to close "because your activities will incite religious, sectarian and dervish-order discrimination; will harm religious and national feelings; and will create offense in the society."

Signed by District Security Director Salih Gokalp, the order declared that the church's location had not been approved in the municipal zoning plan and that no religious or other private education of any kind could be allowed on the premises without the express permission of the Ministry of Education.

The church has met in its current location for the past seven years without previous complaints from the Turkish authorities.

Yasmin and the majority of his congregation, averaging 80 to 90 worshippers at Sunday services, are Turkish citizens from a variety of ethnic Christian backgrounds. The Protestant church has met for worship in the city since 1963, although after its original place of worship was torn down in 1970, the congregation met in the church facilities of the local Armenian Orthodox Church for 25 years.

In 1995, the congregation purchased and moved into its own church facility in Iskendurun's Piri Reis district, notifying local authorities on June 26, 1995, of the location and set times of worship, Bible studies and religious seminars.

In compliance with local zoning regulations, Yasmin informed all the other owners of residences and shops in the building that his church had purchased Flat C to be used as a place of Christian worship. "None of them had any problem with this, and all of them signed the notarized forms giving their consent," Yasmin said.

In an indirect admission, the police order acknowledges that "there is no provision in our laws concerning the construction and use of "places of worship.'" But it goes on to insist that "it is not possible for places of worship to be built in random places" under the country's zoning laws.

"We are not enemies of the state," a bewildered Yasmin said today by telephone from Iskenderun. "We love our nation. So why are they doing this to us?" After pastoring and preaching for 43 years, Yasmin admitted he had found it very difficult to be forbidden to worship with his congregation for the past month.

A lawyer retained by the New Testament Church confirmed today that he is preparing to file a case later this week before the administrative courts on behalf of the Iskenderun Protestants to regain their constitutional rights to freedom of worship and religious activities.

Iskenderun is located just 25 miles from Antakya (ancient Antioch), where the New Testament says Christ's followers were first called Christians. With a population of 160,000 population, Iskenderun still bears the name of its 4th century B.C. founder, Alexander the Great.

Source: Barbara G. Baker, Compass News


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: balkans; catholiclist; christianlist; christianpersecutio; clashofcivilizatio; turkey
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last
To: Destro
Although most churches have been destroyed in Muslim Turkey, some churches in Turkish occupied Cyprus have become hotels, bordelos, rooming houses, etc. Many others have met the same destructive fate as in Turkey and Kosovo however - elimination from the face of the earth. The Soviet Communists took a lesson in church destruction from the Turks.
21 posted on 09/27/2002 5:28:32 PM PDT by eleni121
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: Red Jones
In greece they've outlawed the methodist church

Your claim is patently False!!! Father George (Methodist) has even started a Kosovo outreach program from Thessaloniki in Greece.

As for your comments about the Armenian Christians - nothing could be further from the truth! 99.9% of Armenians either died in the genocide committed by Turks or have left many years ago.

Finally, the reason that some Eastern Orthodox Christian countries are resistant to proselytizing by other Christian denominations (Roman Catholics for example) is that it is simply not needed. Why would one Christian group want to evangelize another Christian group? Why not evangelize the unchurched instead?

22 posted on 09/27/2002 5:40:57 PM PDT by eleni121
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Destro
and Turkey was one of the first places the Gospel flourished during the first and second century.Amazing what repression and persecution can do.Thanks for the photo.That really drives it home
23 posted on 09/27/2002 5:54:47 PM PDT by lexington minuteman 1775
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: lexington minuteman 1775
and Turkey was one of the first places the Gospel flourished during the first and second century.

It wasn't Turkey then either in name or population. The first Turks appeared in Anatolia around 1,000 years after.

24 posted on 09/27/2002 6:18:08 PM PDT by Destro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: Red Jones; TopQuark; eleni121
Red Jones, the reason the Protestant congregation was using the Armenian Church was because it was available. Not many Armenians in Turkey left to fill it anymore.
25 posted on 09/27/2002 6:21:28 PM PDT by Destro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: lexington minuteman 1775
Click on the link and view the slide show of that pogrom.
26 posted on 09/27/2002 6:23:04 PM PDT by Destro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
why thank you for correcting me; I read several years ago that methodist church had been considered a cult and restricted in greece, perhaps info I read was false or incomplete; The article mentioned armenian orthodox, I just used them as example; I know they were victims of genocide in 1910-1915.
27 posted on 09/27/2002 7:10:16 PM PDT by Red Jones
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Destro
I recieved this bit of news today from the Voice of the Martyrs:

TURKEY According to Turkish World Outreach, the Turkish Christian fellowship of Batikent-Ankara was closed down by local police during worship services on September 25. A television broadcast a few days before made slanderous claims about the believers, even accusing the Christians of smashing car windows in the neighborhood where the church is located. Fortunately, the believers have been well liked, except perhaps by leaders of a nearby mosque. Local officials have ordered the Christians to stop meeting despite the guarantees of religious freedom in the Turkish constitution. The fellowship has asked for prayer as follows: that none of the believers will be abused and lies about them will be exposed publicly, that they will love and pray for those who persecute them, that they will know the peace of God and have wisdom in dealing with police and various officials, that Muslims will come to the defense of the rights of the believers, and the news media will see this as a matter of religious freedom and take the side of the servants of Christ.

28 posted on 09/27/2002 7:55:01 PM PDT by Cleburne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
The Soviet Communists took a lesson in church destruction from the Turks. A little over-reaching, isn't it? Did the Nazis learn hating the churche from the Turks as well? You make it sound as if the Turks were the root of all evil.
29 posted on 09/28/2002 8:33:08 AM PDT by TopQuark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
Finally, the reason that some Eastern Orthodox Christian countries are resistant to proselytizing by other Christian denominations (Roman Catholics for example) is that it is simply not needed. Eleni121, together with Supreme Soviet, has declared this to be so.

You do not subscribe to the principle: you simply choose camps.

30 posted on 09/28/2002 8:38:58 AM PDT by TopQuark
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: Destro
I thought OWB said Turkey was tolerant of Christians.

Hopefully this is just an isolated incident - Turkey seemed to be a enlightened nation.

31 posted on 09/28/2002 8:43:40 AM PDT by Hacksaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hacksaw
Turkey is so tolerant of Christians, none are left in their land of origin.
32 posted on 09/28/2002 1:49:23 PM PDT by Destro
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 31 | View Replies]

To: Destro; OWK
Turkey is so tolerant of Christians, none are left in their land of origin.

Let's us see what OWB has to say about this.

33 posted on 09/28/2002 2:18:13 PM PDT by Hacksaw
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 32 | View Replies]

To: eleni121
Of course that might be a good way to defend national security and we could try it too, shut down all the terrorists' havens, mosques that is.
34 posted on 09/28/2002 2:34:21 PM PDT by RWG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: RWG
bttt.
35 posted on 09/28/2002 4:13:34 PM PDT by Dec31,1999
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 34 | View Replies]

To: mhking; Free the USA; DTA; Siobhan; Goetz_von_Berlichingen; TomSmedley; litehaus; ...
From what I understand the bleak economic picture in Turkey lately has emboldened Christian missionaries, who have had some some success in converting a few in exchange for a few pounds of butter, similar to the conversions which led to the Catholic Armenians and Lebanese (vs. Orthodox) in that area.

Such conversions lead to social unrest, mostly only domestically, but also on a communal level. We do not allow agressive tactics by Iran or Saudi Arabia (getting our population to wear the burka or grow beards for $50 per month), neither will we allow it by a "Protestant Christian" pastor who really has no congregation.

We would like to avoid intercommunal strife, so if cutting one throat saves many others, then so be it.

Religious programs are allowed on the airwaves, so long as they are not threatening to the overall peace.

The events that took place in 1955 against the Greek population were civil retribution against the massacre of Turkish civilians on Cyprus at that time. Others had left right after the Turkish War of Independence which followed WW1 in population exchanges of Greeks for Turks, which were part of a treaty.

Pay no attention to this Destro and Eleni121, who are hell bent on turning American popular opinion against Turkey.

Turkey is an ally of the USA, the pilots of which flew security missions over US soil following 9/11. Turkey has a long histor of religious tolerance (just ask the Jews), but will not tolerate the politicization of religion. If some subversives were Christians, then our actions against them cannot be seen as anti-Christian, just as our actions against those who were Muslim cannot be seen as anti-Muslim -- and there have been many.

There are pleny of Chruches in communities where Christian congregations actually exist. My mother is Christian, so I know that to be a fact. And I went to a Catholic high school in Istanbul, which is right next to a Catholic hospital. They've been there for over a century.

So to portray Turkey as anti-Christian is a ploy to get you to hate her, so that maybe one day the Greeks can benefit from your hate and realize their dream of a greater Greece.
36 posted on 09/29/2002 9:38:49 AM PDT by a_Turk
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

WIPE THE SMILE OFF OF THIS MAN'S FACE.

VOTE THE RATS OUT!!

DONATE TONIGHT.
SUPPORT FREE REPUBLIC

Donate Here By Secure Server

Or mail checks to
FreeRepublic , LLC
PO BOX 9771
FRESNO, CA 93794

or you can use

PayPal at Jimrob@psnw.com
STOP BY AND BUMP THE FUNDRAISER THREAD

37 posted on 09/29/2002 9:39:14 AM PDT by Mo1
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
The logic that is used to justify the elimination of "socially provacative" groups or individuals is the same as has been used by every perptrator of genocide in the twentieth century. Why did Stalin need to wipe out the Ukranian farmers? They were disrupting the social order. Why did the Young Turks try to wipe out the Armenians back during WWI? They feared the Armenians would disrupt the social order. It is fearful logic, and any nation who holds to such ideas can never be in agreement with the West and liberty or freedom.

Turkey's tolerance of religion is thin at best, and this was proved when the millet classes began to rise economicly and culturaly- threatening the social order and domination by Turkish Muslims. As long as Jews and Christians and ethnic minorities remained subservient to the state they were fine. But when they began to raise their heads above the fixed social standards, the blade came down. One cannot justify Turkey's treatment of its religious and ethnic minorities under the veil of maintaining the status quo- at least, such arguments should not work with those who believe in freedom.

The same ideals behind the oppression of the teens are still present and- as we can clearly see- active in Turkey. To be fair they are hardly Muslim- but what is the point of trading out from Muslim oppression to secular oppression? Both fail to recognize individual rights. I would hope that the Turkish people will embrace a system of real individual freedom, and not accept a compromise that fosters oppression.

38 posted on 09/29/2002 10:51:47 AM PDT by Cleburne
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: a_Turk
So to portray Turkey as anti-Christian is a ploy to get you to hate her, so that maybe one day the Greeks can benefit from your hate and realize their dream of a greater Greece.


Yeah, that's it. A greater Greece, not a bad idea. Thanks for the tip.
39 posted on 09/29/2002 2:13:31 PM PDT by RWG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 36 | View Replies]

To: TopQuark
Turks the root of all evil...Not completeley but almost, geopolitically/culturally, morally that is.

First, when Hitler was deciding about whether to proceed with concentration camps he referenced the Turks by commenting on the fact that the world took little notice when the Muslim Turks established concentration camps as they went about genociding the Christians - Armenians, Greeks, Assyrians, etc. peoples who had lived in this region for thousands of years before the marauding Turks arrived on the scene.

Second, the Ottoman Turkish Emnpire has left a sordid mess of things from the Middle East to Africa to the Balkans. Forced migrations, colonial oppression, forced conversions, frequent mass killings, you name it they did it. We are living or rather suffering the results of hundreds of years of Turkish Muslim stagnation and oppression in that part of the world.

40 posted on 09/29/2002 2:48:15 PM PDT by eleni121
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 29 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-68 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson