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Turkey has deported hundreds of Christians and barred them from re-entering the country, according to a new report. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International legal officer Lidia Rieder told the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) that Turkey’s government is labelling Christian foreigners “national security threats” in order to deport them and block them from returning to the country.

Turkey’s “labelling of peaceful Christian residents as ‘security threats’ is a clear misuse of law and an attack on freedom of religion or belief,” Rieder asserted at the OSCE conference. “When governments manipulate administrative or immigration systems to exclude people based solely on their faith, it undermines both the rule of law and the very principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence that the OSCE was founded to protect.”

According to ADF International, approximately 350 Christians have been deported from Turkey since 2020. Despite a constitutional protection for religious liberty, the Turkish government has used “security codes” to designate deported Christian foreigners as “national security threats”. ADF International, which is representing deported Christians in over 30 cases before the European Court of Human Rights, noted, “These actions have deprived many Protestant congregations of pastoral leadership and disrupted religious life across the country.”

Systemic Discrimination

“Entry bans and deportations have increasingly been used as tools to silence foreign Christian workers, while theological training remains heavily restricted — the historic Halki Seminary remains closed, and Protestant seminaries continue to be denied legal status,” ADF International observed in its report. “At the same time, Bible education is prohibited even as Islamic theological courses are freely permitted under state oversight.”

Additionally, Christians have even been forced out of their places of worship in some cases. “Taken together, these practices reveal a pattern of systemic discrimination against Christians in clear violation of Articles 9 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights and [Turkey’s] own constitutional guarantees.”

“Freedom of religion cannot exist if believers live under threat of expulsion for practising their faith,” Rieder said. “The OSCE and its participating States have pledged to promote tolerance and non-discrimination. These commitments must be upheld not only in word, but in action.”

Resident Denied Re-entry

One of the Christians ADF International is representing is Kenneth Arthur Wiest, an American who was denied re-entry to Turkey upon returning from a trip to the United States, despite having lived in Turkey for over 30 years in possession of a valid residence permit.

Wiest was given an “N-85” label under Turkey’s Directorate General of Migration Management (DGMM) and Ministry of the Interior, meaning he needed prior approval from the Ministry of the Interior to re-enter the country. The N-85 label was issued based on “undisclosed information obtained from the National Intelligence Agency,” according to Wiest’s complaint before the European Court of Human Rights.

Wiest was denied the prior authorisation required for re-entry, and Turkish courts would not let him challenge the ban. He and his legal representatives were also not permitted access to documents related to the rationale behind imposing the travel restriction, and the Turkish Constitutional Court dismissed Wiest’s claims as “unsubstantiated.”

The European Court of Human Rights is expected to issue a decision in the case soon, one which ADF International said will “set a crucial precedent for the protection of religious freedom in Europe and beyond.” The organisation added that Wiest’s “case represents the growing number of believers punished for peacefully practising their faith.”

Although making up less than one percent of the population, Christians in Turkey have been facing increasing hostility, with the state often failing to prosecute acts of discrimination and violence. Protestant and Catholic missionaries and priests have been beaten, kidnapped, and stabbed, and churches have been vandalised and desecrated, with attackers frequently citing religious motivations and referring to Christian practices and preaching as blasphemies against Islam.

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Republished thanks to The Washington Stand. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.