Visa restrictions impede missionaries in Turkey

Missionaries will have to leave Turkey every three months and will be forced to remain outside the country for three months before returning, now that the Turkish government has tightened its visa regulations, reports VOM-USA.

The new policy, which came into effect on February 1, allows 180-day multiple-entry visas, but visitors can only spend 90 days in the country and then must wait another 90 days to re-enter the country. This will significantly hamper the work of foreign missionaries.

Since early February, the Turkish government has expelled a number of missionaries who held resident permits, and other missionaries who have left the country and have tried to re-enter have been turned away at the border under the new visa regulations.

Please remember Turkey in your prayers.

• Please pray that these new restrictions will only encourage missionaries rather than discourage them as they rest in the knowledge that no man can thwart God's purposes  (Job 42:2). 
• Pray that the gospel will continue to spread and grow in Turkey.

To learn more about the struggles Christians face in Turkey, please click here. 

Al Qaeda planned to bomb churches in Turkey’s capital

Police discovered and arrested Al Qaeda
extremists who were planning to attack churches
and Christians in Ankara, Turkey's capital.

Compass Direct News reports that 11 Al Qaeda militants planned to destroy all churches in Turkey’s second largest city. An article in the daily Taraf newspaper says a home-grown terrorist cell allegedly made plans to attack churches and Christian clergy.

The Special Prosecutor’s Office investigated various documents and CDs that contained revised jihadist plans. The new jihad plan was allegedly to focus attacks in Turkey before moving on to other countries including the United States.

Among the plans and sketches seized earlier this year was a list of Christian workers living in Ankara. Christian leaders in the area were shocked when they heard.

“No one has had any news about this until now,” said one Christian worker.

The Taraf reports that some of the militants were tracked for as long as six months. Along with detailed maps, assault rifles, and ammunition, over 1,500 pounds of explosives were seized over the course of the investigation.

Members of the terrorist group were instructed by Al Qaeda not to enrol in Turkey’s military, send their children to public schools, or recognize the authority of Turkish courts. There were also guidelines for what to do if arrested.

For more information, read Compass’ article here. For more information on the trials Christians face in Turkey, click here.

Watching, praying for the persecuted at Christmas

By Carl Moeller, Open Doors USA. Article posted at Christianity.com.

As much of the world becomes more dangerous for Christians each day, many in the persecuted church defy the threat of terrorist violence and arrest by religion police simply by worshipping as a community of believers.

Last year violence marked Christmas celebrations in Egypt for the second consecutive year. Just days before Coptic Christians celebrated Christmas (Jan. 7 on the Julian calendar Coptic Christians use), as midnight Mass adjourned at a church in Alexandria, Egypt, a suicide bomber killed 24 Christians. Approximately 100 were injured in the New Year’s Day massacre. Militant Islamists also murdered six Christians and wounded nine others as they left Christmas Eve services at St. John’s Church in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.

In Jos, Nigeria, last Christmas Eve the al Qaeda-affiliated Boko Haram terrorist group killed at least 86 Christians with bombs and attacks that primarily targeted worship services. The victims included church choir members hacked to death with knives. On Christmas Day last year in the Philippines' Sulu province, Islamists detonated a bomb inside a chapel, injuring a priest, a 9-year-old girl and nine others.

Christmas is a favorite time for Iran's religion police to harass Christians. Two years ago Iran's mutaween, or religion police, carried out a wave of arrests of Christians, jailing dozens in a sweep of house churches in the days surrounding the holiday. On Dec. 23, 2009, in Mosul, Iraq, a bomb exploded near a church, killing two people; in Mosul on Christmas Eve, Islamists shot a Christian to death at his home.

In a season that for Christians represents great joy and peace, prevailing tension and strife may squelch the celebration. Christmas, like Easter, represents a window for abuse of Christians by persecutors. Believers in Iraq told me that in recent years even hanging traditional decorations in their homes has proven increasingly risky because it draws up reservoirs of hatred toward the church. That's why some Christians in Iraq and elsewhere have curtailed visible observation of Christmas such as lights, decorated trees and Nativity scenes.

This year Christians in the Middle East will mark Christmas for the first time since Arab Spring uprisings toppled entrenched dictators Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. As popular revolts geared up last year over Christmas we saw no decrease in violence against Christians. Indeed, attacks on Egypt's Coptic Christian minority have soared, even perpetrated by that nation's military.

Unrest continues in much of the region. Violence targeting believers is ongoing in far-flung places around the globe such as Iraq, India, Nigeria, Sudan and Indonesia. Christians are experiencing persecution in Vietnam, Burma and China. In mid-December North Korea threatened to bomb Christmas trees that South Korean Christians had erected at the nations' volatile border. Turkish authorities have uncovered a sweeping al Qaeda plot to bomb all churches in Turkey's capital, in addition to the Turkish Parliament and U.S. Embassy.

We are never privy to what lies around the bend, but we can pray to the Lord who is. As we hear the Christmas songs of joy and peace, we must remember the persecuted and support them through concerted prayer. Pray that new governments replacing toppled dictators in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia will give Christian minorities a proper and protected place in society. Pray that the hope that led to the Arab Spring uprisings will produce real fruit in the form of true freedom of worship. Should violence erupt, may Christians be protected.

Though the signs for Christians in places hostile to the gospel are not encouraging, the Holy Spirit can redeem any situation for God's glory. May the redemptive power of the baby Jesus born in Bethlehem transform these fears into a season of great hope and true peace.

Government overturns religious property seizures in Turkey

The Turkish government made an historic U-turn in state policy recently, issuing an official decree inviting Turkey's Christian and Jewish communities to reclaim their long-confiscated religious properties, reports Compass Direct.

The decree comes 75 years after the Turkish government seized hundreds of lands and buildings owned by its Greek, Armenian, Syriac and Jewish communities.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the surprise decision on August 28 in Istanbul, addressing a large gathering of Istanbul's non-Muslim religious leaders who represent 161 minority foundations.
The landmark decree is a significant step toward eliminating decades of unfair practices imposed by the Turkish state against its non-Muslim citizens.

Their former holdings include schools, churches, cemeteries, stores, hospitals, orphanages, houses, apartment buildings and factories that were seized by the Turkish state and re-registered as public or foundation properties. A number were later sold to third parties. The new decree states that owners of properties sold by the state to third parties will be reimbursed at market value.

The return of these extensive properties to their rightful owners has been a key demand of the European Union, to which Turkey is applying for full membership.

For the full report, click here.

Thank the Lord for this development!

• Pray the transition will go smoothly and there will be no resistance or negative reaction in response. 
• Pray this will provide great encouragement to Christians in Turkey. 
• Pray that believers in Turkey will be a light for Christ in all their thoughts, words and deeds.

Malatya murder trial continues on 4th anniversary of deaths

Christian martyrs Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel
and Tillman Geske (Photo by Compass Direct)

Monday marked the fourth anniversary of the murders of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tillman Geske—employees of the Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, eastern Turkey, reported Christian Solidarity Worldwide.

The three members of the Malatya Kurtulus Church were tortured and killed by a group of five young Muslims in the office of the Christian publishing company on April 18, 2007. 

The trial of the five alleged murderers began on November 22, 2007, and to date at least 27 witnesses have appeared in court over the course of 30 hearings. The five men were caught trying to escape from the scene of the crime. However, the trial has been prolonged due to the prosecutors’ desire to prove the killings were commissioned by high-level clandestine powers.

Last month, 20 people were detained in connection with both the Malatya murders and the ongoing ‘Ergenekon’ case. Ergenekon is an alleged high-level conspiracy to destabilize the Turkish government through acts of terror, including the targeting of minority communities, as outlined in the organization’s “Cage Action Plan.”

Friends and family of the victims, who have long advocated a more in-depth examination of these murders, have expressed satisfaction with recent developments, and the hope that the Malatya trial will soon be officially merged with the Ergenekon case. However, the timing of the recent removal from the Ergenekon investigation of Zekeriya Öz, the chief prosecutor who ordered the recent arrests, has raised some anxieties.

The next Malatya hearing is scheduled for April 29.

Christians in Turkey face harassment

Pray for religious freedom
in Turkey!

A recent report shows harassment continues to be a daily problem for Turkey’s Christians and churches.

Discrimination, slander and attacks against churches were among the examples of ongoing harassment that the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches (TEK) recorded in 2010, reported Compass Direct News.

In an eight-page report published earlier this year, TEK’s Committee for Religious Freedom and Legal Affairs outlined problems Protestants face. Turkish laws and “negative attitudes of civil servants” continue to make it nearly impossible for non-Muslims to establish places of worship. Missionary activities are still considered a national threat despite the existence of Turkish laws guaranteeing citizens the freedom to propagate and teach their faith.

Children, too, are victims of discrimination at school. While non-Muslim students are permitted to stay out of religious classes, parents have reported cases in which they were not able to take their children out of such courses.

Turkey rose to 30th place in Open Doors’ 2011 World Watch List of nations in which persecution against Christians takes place, up from 35th place the previous year. The Christian support organization cited deteriorating conditions as the secular country applied some laws in discriminatory ways against Christians.

Back in 2007, two Turkish Christians and a German Christian were bound, tortured and then murdered at the office of Zirve Publishing Co., a Christian publishing house in Malatya. The four suspects were arrested while trying to escape the scene of the crime, as was the alleged ringleader.

The trial of the five suspects has been prolonged and could be furthered stalled with the loss of Judge Eray Gurtekin, who presided over the case since it began on November 22, 2007, to a Supreme Court of Appeals post in Ankara. The court has been examining links between the killers and alleged masterminds.