Protestants in Turkey asked to spy on community

The Association of Protestant Churches in Turkey has released their annual report, highlighting the challenges and violations of religious freedom they faced over the past year. Chief among these violations are allegations that members of the community have been offered work as spies and informants. The group claimed that the trend was especially common in the east and southeast region to provide information about congregation members and churches themselves. The association said it shows the extent of state intrusion and suspicion of their activities.

Dr. Mine Yildirim, head of the Freedom of Belief Initiative and Eurasia Civil Society Program at Norwegian Helsinki Committee, said reports of requests for spying from persons who introduce themselves as civilian police or intelligence services are alarming but not necessarily new.

“If these are public officials, it is alarming that the authorities ap

Experts emphasized the need for an urgent explanation from public authorities and a rise in protection of churches.

proach their citizens whose worship places are public with such suspicion. If these are not public officials, again, the situation is alarming because it would indicate that some people are ‘playing the role of the state’ to monitor and intimidate the Protestant community,” she told Arab News. Other violations summarized in the report include more than 100 foreign Protestants being denied entry into the country, leaving several posts in their churches vacant. “The denial of visas to foreign religious workers has become a policy for the government in recent years. Considering the obstacles before training religious teachers and leaders for non-Muslim communities, it is understandable that the Protestant community partly relies on foreign religious workers. Not allowing foreign religious workers to remain in Turkey means that Turkish citizens are impacted,” Yildirim said.