(LifeSiteNews) — Christians in Turkey are reportedly being removed from the country because they pose a “national security threat.”
During remarks given at a human rights conference in Warsaw on October 13, Lidia Rieder, a legal expert for Alliance Defending Freedom International, said that Christians are being targeted by Turkey’s government.
“Türkiye’s labeling of peaceful Christian residents as ‘security threats’ is a clear misuse of law and an attack on freedom of religion or belief,” Rieder said. “When governments manipulate administrative or immigration systems to exclude people based solely on their faith, it undermines both the rule of law and the very principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence that the OSCE (Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe) was founded to protect.”
At present, Turkey’s population is an estimated 99 percent Muslim with less than 1 percent being Christian. Run by autocratic, right-wing ruler Recep Erdoğan, Turkey plays an influential role in geo-politics thanks to its size and strategic location bridging Europe with the Middle East. While officially a member of NATO, Turkey retains strong ties to the Muslim world, including nations like Qatar and Azerbaijan, which recently forced over 100,000 Christians out of Nagorno-Karabakh and into Armenia with help from Turkish weapons.
An ADF press release noted that since 2020 “more than 200 foreign Christian workers and their families – affecting roughly 350 individuals – have been expelled from Türkiye, many of whom had lived there for decades.” It added that “the Ministry of Interior has assigned these individuals so-called ‘security codes’ such as N-82 and G-87, effectively banning their re-entry and classifying them as national security threats.”
A 2024 report issued by the Freedom of Belief Initiative confirmed the ADF’s findings. The group said that Christians are the most persecuted religious minority in Turkey, with more than 50 incidents taking place against them since 2020.
Asked by Fox News Digital to comment about Rieder’s remarks, the Turkish embassy in Washington, D.C. directed Fox to a statement issued by the country’s Center for Countering Disinformation, which on October 15 denied her claims, calling them “completely unfounded and part of a deliberate disinformation campaign.”
“Respect for faiths and pluralism are indispensable elements of our country’s democratic order,” the statement read. “Turkey, like any other sovereign state, may make administrative decisions on foreign nationals for a variety of reasons, including visa violations, disturbance of public order, or a lack of legal permits.”
In Rieder’s speech, she also mentioned the Wiest v. Turkey religious liberty case that is set to appear before the European Court of Human Rights. The case involves Kenneth Wiest, a Christian American citizen who lived in Turkey legally for more than three decades with his family but was denied re-entry in 2019 without proof he did anything wrong.
“Entry bans and deportations have increasingly been used as tools to silence foreign Christian workers, while theological training remains heavily restricted,” the ADF said in its press release. “Protestant seminaries continue to be denied legal status. At the same time, Bible education is prohibited even as Islamic theological courses are freely permitted under state oversight. Church properties also face unjust restrictions, with congregations such as the Bursa Protestant community being forced out of long-standing places of worship.”
Earlier this week, watchdog group Aid to the Church in Need issued its 2025 report on religious persecution worldwide. It found that a whopping 5.4 billion persons face discrimination for their beliefs. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, expressed concerns with the study’s findings in a press release Tuesday, stating that “men and women everywhere deserve freedom from any form of compulsion in matters of faith.” The world’s population is currently estimated to be just over eight billion.
