PERSECU ION International Christian Concern | August 2013
ISSUE 3/5
an inside job A Turkish pastor’s near assassination from hidden elements in his church mirrors the threat to common Turks from their Islamist government BY TO D D DA N I E L S A N D J E F F K I N G
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Emre Karaali, pastor of the Izmit Protestant Church, started his day like any other with the morning newspaper on Wednesday, January 16, 2013. As he read through the paper, he discovered that the previous day, security forces had arrested 14 people who were part of an assassination plot. A few hours later, the police called Pastor Emre into the station and briefed him on the situation, explaining that he was the target of the assassination plot. Pastor Emre and his family, all Turkish converts to Christianity, have served at the church for four years. The church itself has been the target of vandalism and even attempted arson in the past. The church has about 15-20 active members who are all Turkish believers.
RADICALISM HAS LANDED IN TURKEY This incident is one of many troubling incidents that have occurred since the rise to power of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (JDP or AKP party) in 2002 (see box next page). Taken as a whole, this trail of incidents reveals a government and political party that are increasingly willing to show their Islamist core wiring. This boldness is working through the culture as well. A SHEEP IN WO L F’S C LOT H I N G
Since 2002, the JDP, led by Prime Minister Erdogan, has been the ruling party in Turkey. Erdogan is a radical Islamist who, even in high school, was “Two of [the arrestees] atnoted for his zeal for Islam. tended our church for over a He was formerly the mayor of year and they were like family,” Istanbul but was imprisoned for Pastor Emre said after the arinciting religious hatred (essenrests. One of the men had even tially for radicalizing Muslims) participated in a baptism service when he publicly recited a poem Screenshot from euronews.net’s report of Turkey riots. a few months earlier. Others in that spoke of mosques as barthe group of 14 had also visited racks, the minarets of mosques the church and seemed to show some interest in Christianity, as bayonets, and Muslims as an army. but were not well known to Pastor Karaali. After serving four months of his sentence, he was released During the months that these two men had been attending and reentered politics, forming the AKP. In 2002, his party the church, they collected personal information on the pastor won the parliamentary elections, but due to his conviction, and his family, kept detailed records on where he went and he was barred from holding office until a constitutional when, created maps of the pastor’s home and the church, and amendment removed his disqualification. kept lists and photographs of those who visited the church. In 2003, Erdogan took office as the prime minister. After The security forces stepped in and made the arrests just days winning a second term in 2007 with an increased share of before a series of evangelistic meetings where the murder the vote, the AKP became increasingly bold. Both he and the was planned to be carried out. party are willing to reveal more of their fundamentalist and
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authoritarian nature. In addition to promoting Islam and Islamic values through the tools of the State, Erdogan’s recent actions appear to be moving in a more dictatorial direction: limiting freedom of speech, manipulating media sources, and mindlessly attacking people who are practicing their democratic freedoms. Alarmingly, Turkey now has the largest number of imprisoned journalists in the world! This media censorship instills fear in any who rely on Turkey’s democracy to ensure their freedom, be it freedom to challenge their own government or freedom to worship the god they choose in the manner they choose. The direction of the Erdogan-led party worries not only foreign observers and Christians, but many secular Turks as well. These groups responded to the harsh rule of Erdogan and the more conservative direction he is taking the country with large-scale protests that began in Istanbul and spread throughout the country in June 2013.
Facts on Turkey THE RISE OF ISLAMIC RADICALISM IN TURKEY Since 2002, multiple priests and Christians have been murdered, including: Father Andrea Santoro, February, 2006; Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, January, 2007. There are now Islamic radio shows that warn women not to shake men’s hands and remind them to behave modestly. These would never have been allowed pre-Erdogan. E R D O G A N ’ S G O V E R N M E N T. . . •
Quickly purged the military of generals who had acted for decades as the “guardians of secularism.” This was to preempt them from grabbing back the reigns of power as they have in the past when leaders have drifted towards Islamic radicalism.
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Has changed the education system to promote Islamic education.
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Erdogan and his party are Islamists and have their roots in the Muslim Brotherhood. Like their brothers in Egypt, they attained power by cloaking their true ideology and wiring. Like the Brotherhood, they have overreached and may pay the price. As seen by their more recent militarism, they will probably not go quietly and will not give up. It seems that Turkey will increase in fundamentalism.
Fired the liberal head of the massive Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) and replaced him with a more conservative leader. Diyanet manages all religious personnel (which increased from 74,000 in 2002 to more than 117,000 presently) and activities for the Sunni Muslim community, including controlling the content of the sermons preached in the mosques. Diyanet’s budget is $1.6 billion annually (an 18 percent increase in 2013).
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Has expressed strong support for Hamas, a group labeled as a terrorist organization by the United States and European Union.
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Whether the Islamist AKP holds onto power and strengthens its grip on Turkey, or nationalist elements regain power, time will tell. Either direction spells trouble for Christians. One thing we know for sure: the rise of radicalism in Turkey, the poster boy for the modern, moderate, and secular Muslim country, is indeed startling. One has to think that if Turkey can turn radical, then all Islamic countries are vulnerable.
Has placed restrictions on speech and charged individuals with “insulting Islam” or “insulting the State,” though the two are beginning to appear as the same thing.
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Is considering reopening the Hagia Sophia (HS) as a place of worship for Muslims. The HS was, for approximately 1000 years, the world’s largest Christian cathedral and served as the seat of the Eastern Orthodox Church until Muslims confiscated it in the 1400s by Ottoman Turks. It was turned into a museum in the 1930s. This is a highly provocative act.
W H AT ’ S N E X T F O R T U R K E Y ? The future remains uncertain for Turkey. As of the writing of this article, the Turkish people who have been publicly protesting Erdogan’s and AKP’s increasing Islamist and dictatorial course have been pushed off the streets by security elements. These protests were the first substantial pushback against Erdogan and his AKP party.
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