Turkey’s Islamic-rooted government has
authorised the building of the first church in the
country in nearly a century, officials said Saturday.
The church is for the tiny Syriac community in
Turkey and will be built in the Istanbul suburb of
Yesilkoy on the shores of the Sea of Marmara,
which already has Greek Orthodox, Armenian and
Catholic churches.
The announcement came after Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu met Turkey’s religious leaders in
Istanbul on Friday and said no faith that has lived
in the country could be regarded as foreign.
“It is the first (new church) since the creation of the
republic (in 1923),” a government source told AFP.
“Churches have been restored and reopened to the
public, but no new church has been built until
now,” he added.
Turkey, which once had large Christian minorities,
is now 99 percent Muslim and critics of the ruling
Justice and Development Party (AKP) have
accused it of trying to Islamicise its officially
secular society.
However, as part of its bid to join the European
Union, Ankara has made efforts to widen minority
rights and return some seized property as well as
restore churches, monasteries and synagogues.
Christians now make up less than 100,000 of
Turkey’s population of 76 million and are
sometimes the target of attacks.
But the prime minister insisted that the ruling AK
Party “does not discriminate between our citizens…
the principle of equal citizenship continues to be
our characteristic trait,” he added.
He condemned recent attacks on mosques in
Europe and urged the religious leaders he met with
Friday to “speak up together against
Islamophobia”.
The country’s ancient Syriac minority, which now
numbers less than 20,000, live mostly in the
southeast and tend to be either affiliated to the
Orthodox or Catholic churches.
But their numbers have swollen in recent years by
thousands of Syriac refugees first forced out of Iraq
by war and sectarian violence and later by others
fleeing the fighting in Syria.
During his visit to Turkey in November, Pope
Francis denounced what he termed the current
wave of “Christianophobia” in the Middle East,
accusing Islamist radicals of “hunting” Christians.
The various Syriac churches are among the oldest
surviving Christian denominations, and use
Aramaic, the language of Jesus Christ, in their
services.
The new Istanbul church will be built on land given
by the local council and paid for by a Syriac
group, the government spokesman said.

http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/01/turkey-gives-go-ahead-first-new-church-century/

Amen

Where Ever he leads I go #Jesus is Lord

Really































K

hmmmn...

hmmmm, lord have mercy.

All na deception, they want to join the EU and are trying to demonstrate religios tolerance. The old ottoman empire will always work against christianity.

true2god:
All na deception, they want to join the EU and are trying to demonstrate religios tolerance. The old ottoman empire will always work against christianity.

I don't think so, despite all the aggression and fundermentalism in Islam, it's a crumbling religion and many muslims are converting covertly to christianity in the. Middle east. It's just a matter of time they would gain sufficient numbers to hold their own and come out publicly to challenge the cowards threatening them with evil apotasy laws.

Hmm, to think that some centuries ago Turkey was a Christian country. Take heed Nigeria.