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ANKARA: Turkish Christians to hold international faith congress

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  • ANKARA: Turkish Christians to hold international faith congress

    Today's Zaman, Turkey
    Jan 4 2008


    Turkish Christians to hold international faith congress


    A congress aimed at mending Turkey's shattered image in the eyes of
    the Christian world after a number of attacks against priests and
    missionaries will bring together the leaders of various congregations
    of Christian churches from 120 countries around world, Ertan Çevik,
    head of Turkey's Protestant-Baptist Churches Association announced on
    Thursday.


    Ertan Çevik
    The congress, to be organized by Çevik's association, hopes to change
    the world opinion about how Turkey treats its Christians following
    recent attacks against non-Muslims. In January Hrant Dink, an ethnic
    Armenian newspaper editor, was shot dead in Ýstanbul by a teenager
    who said he had "insulted Turkishness." In April two Turks and a
    German, all evangelists, were murdered in Malatya. Their killers
    bound and tortured them before slitting their throats. In December an
    Italian Catholic priest was stabbed by a teenager in Ýzmir. Another
    Italian priest was shot dead in Trabzon in 2006. In December, the
    editor-in-chief of a daily Greek newspaper was beaten severely by
    unidentified attackers on the street, and only a week ago, an Antalya
    priest was stabbed by a young man. Luckily, he survived the attack.
    Although evidence shows that some of these attacks can be traced to
    rogue elements in the police and the army, the international reaction
    has been that these are mostly hate crimes caused by
    ultra-nationalists with an Islamist leaning. Çevik noted that attacks
    against Christians have found wide coverage in the European Press.

    Çevik has also stated that the Ýzmir Police Department has taken
    tremendous measures at the Buca Baptist Church following last month's
    stabbing. He said the Turkish nation knew little about Christianity
    and expressed his opinion that Theology Departments across the
    country should do more research on Christianity.

    "In the past few months, some extreme news stories in the media have
    negatively affected the society. Some people who don't know what they
    are doing stage various attacks. Although these acts do not represent
    the majority of our society, they are attributed to the entire nation
    by foreigners."

    He said as Turkish Christians, they were committed to the solidarity
    and indivisible unity of the country and to the principles and
    revolutions of Atatürk, adding that they were ready to cooperate with
    anyone who shares the same commitments.

    He also said some TV series that portray Christians as betraying
    Turks were wrong and creating bias, adding that although his church
    had strongly condemned cartoons insulting Muslims by a Danish artist,
    his church had been threatened.

    Çevik also stated that they needed support from Prime Minister Recep
    Tayyip Erdoðan to expand faith tourism around the Ýzmir area, which
    is home to an ancient church and some of the key events in Christian
    history.


    04.01.2008

    Today's Zaman Ýstanbul
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