Erdogan’s Turkey Increasingly Dangerous for Christians

What a stunning, intriguing travel destination Turkey used to be. And once upon a time, it was a uniquely safe and secular state remarkably free of extremism, despite a teeming, overwhelmingly Muslim population that numbers some 79.5 million souls.

Nowadays, however, Turkey is being progressively radicalized under the firm hand of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Turkey’s tiny community of some 160,000 Christians is all too aware of the encroaching danger they face.

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Following the coup attempt, Turkey expert Aykan Erdemir at Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) explained, “On August 7, in a demonstration of solidarity, Turkey’s Jewish and Christian religious leaders joined the ‘Democracy and Martyrs’ rally, the government’s million-strong anti-coup demonstration in Istanbul. In denouncing the coup plotters, however, three of the speakers insulted religious minorities by tarring the plotters as ‘seeds of Byzantium,’ ‘crusaders,’ and as a ‘flock of infidels.’”

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