Turkey (MNN) — A bipartisan group of 54 US senators sent a letter to President Biden regarding human rights concerns in Turkey. These include jailing journalists and purging independent judges.
The letter mentions the Armenian Genocide from 1915-1917. But it also highlights atrocities towards Armenians during the recent war between Armenia and Azerbaijan. To this day, Turkey continues to deny the Armenian Genocide.
Vincent Michael of FMI explains the situation in Turkey. “For many years, Turkey has looked with kind of stars in their eyes toward Europe. Since the days of World War Two, it has wanted to be more a part of Europe. But with this most recent president, it’s really taken a shift back towards being a strongly Islamic nation. And not just Islamic inside of Turkey, but a leader in the Islamic world. This has caused Turkey to really trend in a direction that would be out of step with the rest of the European countries. Lots of abuses towards ethnic minorities, religious minorities.”
FMI’s new ministry in Turkey
FMI has begun building relationships and ministering in Turkey. Last year, the ministry helped fund Bible materials for children. Michael says, “That was something that we didn’t think we might not, we thought that that might not happen till 2021, maybe 2022.”
As Turkey cracks down harder on religious minorities, Michael says we need to pray for ministry workers in the country. “People who have worked for 10, 20, 30 years inside of Turkey as just really good-hearted Christians wanting to make a difference, they’ve been denied entry into Turkey. So that just is causing a huge amount of heartbreak. [Imagine] what that would be like as a missionary: dedicating your life to a place and not being allowed to return.”
Header image by rus-burkhanov from Pixabay.
