The European Centre for Law and Justice (ECLJ) released its report “Persecution of Foreign Christians in Turkey” ahead of Pope Leo XIV’s upcoming visit to Istanbul.
In an emailed press release, the organization said the timing of the report’s publication coincides with both the 1,700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the Pope’s meeting with Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I on the feast of St. Andrew, the founder of the Church of Constantinople.
The ECLJ says the moment offers a chance for global Christian solidarity.
“This will be an opportunity to demonstrate the unity of the Church of Christ,” the release states, urging support for its petition to European institutions. “Let us also give a visible sign of this unity by supporting Christians in Turkey.”
The report describes a pattern of violence, discrimination, and administrative pressure that it says continues to endanger the country’s remaining Christian communities. It cites recent shootings, assaults, and vandalism, saying “direct violence against Christians remains a reality in Turkey,” and adding that such attacks are “rarely acknowledged as hate crimes.”
The ECLJ argues that these incidents unfold within a broader climate of hostility, fueled by what it calls a “growing convergence of political, media, and societal narratives” portraying Christians as foreign or disloyal.
Monitoring data cited in the report show anti-Christian hate crimes more than doubling between 2021 and 2023, with pro-government media frequently linking Christians to “Western imperialism” or “missionary threats.”
The report also highlights structural barriers that affect Christian life in Turkey. No church has legal personality, meaning they cannot own property, employ staff, or deal directly with the state. Instead, they must operate through tightly regulated community foundations that have lost significant property through what the ECLJ calls “state-engineered dispossession.” Clergy training remains restricted, the report adds, noting the closure of the Halki Seminary and the post-2016 expulsion or residency denial of hundreds of foreign pastors and Christian workers on security grounds.
Christian children face obstacles in the education system as well, the report says. Compulsory religion classes focus almost entirely on Sunni Islam and present Christianity inaccurately or with bias. Only minorities recognized under the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne — Greek Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, and Jews — can seek exemptions, leaving Catholics, Protestants, Syriacs, and converts without alternatives. And although religion is no longer printed on Turkish ID cards, the ECLJ notes that religious affiliation remains stored in the digital chip and accessible to officials.
In its press release, the organization urges the Council of Europe, of which Turkey is a member, to take up the issue. It has submitted a petition under Rule 71 calling on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to examine the situation, saying the Assembly will be “required to examine our petition and formally decide whether to take up this issue.”
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