The Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation, in Diyarbakir, Turkey, is appealing a court ruling that denies the group’s request to acquire land that has been zoned for religious buildings.
In a press release, ADF International, which is representing the foundation, said the church was founded in 2019 and now serves more than 100 Protestant Christians in Diyarbakir, a city of roughly 1.8 million. With insufficient space to accommodate its parishioners, the church has submitted numerous petitions to various authorities to acquire land for a new worship center.
They were “met with a bureaucratic maze in which state institutions passed their applications back and forth, claiming to lack the authority to grant the land usage request,” according to ADF International.
“What we are seeing in Türkiye is a troubling display of blatant, faith-based discrimination against Christians,” said Kelsey Zorzi, ADF International’s director of advocacy for global religious freedom. “The Diyarbakir Protestant Church Foundation is simply asking to use land that has already been designated for religious use, in order to build a facility large enough to safely accommodate their congregation; but authorities keep finding ways to deny their request since they are Christians. The land in question has been specifically designated for religious use, but the government is discriminating against the church because it is not associated with the state’s preferred religion.”
About 99% of Turkey’s population is Muslim.
This year, a court ruled against the church’s request, but attorneys say they plan to appeal that decision. They contend that the denial of land is part of a pattern of “increasing government hostility against Christians in Turkey.” They point out that the country has shut down the Protestant seminaries, forcing Christians to rely on foreign missionaries who have seminary training. But since 2018, some 185 foreign Protestant ministers have been deported or banned from reentering the country, with officials often designating them as a “threat to national security.”
Above: Worshippers at the Diyarbakir Protestant Church.
Photo: ADF International