Turkey

May 19, Pontian Greek Genocide Remembrance Day

May 20, 2013 Featured News

Stella Tsolakidou - 19/5/13 In 1994, May 19 was selected by the Greek parliament as the day to commemorate the Pontian Greek Genocide by the Turks. The Pontic Genocide is one of the darkest moments in history not only for Greeks, but also for mankind. The Genocide vanished from its ancestral and historic homeland in Pontus a culturally vibrant and unique part of the Greek population that had been fighting [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Act Introduced in U.S. House of Representatives

May 18, 2013 News

18/5/13 WASHINGTON– As Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Erdogan continues his official U.S. state visit, a bipartisan group of U.S. Representatives introduced the Armenian Genocide Truth and Justice Act, a new measure calling upon the President to build upon the U.S. record of having recognized the Armenian Genocide by working toward improved Armenian-Turkish relations based upon [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Religious Freedom Today-Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Milan: 1700 years later

May 17, 2013 Featured News

Istanbul, Turkey 5/16/2013 Istanbul, Turkey, 17-18 May 2013 1700 years have passed since 313 when, through the Milan Edict of Toleration, Emperor Constantine granted freedom of conscience and freedom of worship to all cults, thus putting an end to centuries of persecution against Christians in the Roman Empire. Since then, Christians have enjoyed religious freedom, [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey Increases Security for Orthodox Patriarch

May 10, 2013 Featured News

ANKARA – 10/5/13 An official says Turkish authorities have tightened security for the Istanbul-based Orthodox Patriarchate following allegations of a plot to attack the spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians. Unconfirmed local media reports said Friday police briefly detained a man following a tip that he planned to assassinate Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I. Haberturk [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey uncovers alleged plot to kill Orthodox Patriarch

May 10, 2013 Featured News

Reuters – 10/5/13 ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Turkey is investigating an alleged plot to assassinate Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians, and has stepped up security around the patriarchate in Istanbul, his spokesman said on Friday. Spokesman Dositheos Anagnostopoulos said the patriarch had not received any direct threats but had learned of the alleged plot from Turkish media, which was later [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

The Politics of Human Rights: Orthodox Christianity Gets the Short End, by Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou

May 9, 2013 News

W ashington, D.C. 5/8/2013 Today is Easter for the world’s 350 million Orthodox Christians, who just completed their Holy Week of prayer and fasting  which culminated in today’s message of transcendent hope.  But all last week and today, Orthodox Christians the world over have been reminded that politics trumps human rights.  There’s a cruel irony [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Are Turkey’s Orthodox Christians Waiting for Godot?

May 8, 2013 Featured News
Metropolitan Apostolos Daniilidis, an Orthodox bishop at the monastery attached to the Halki school, is seen at

  Orhan Kemal Cengiz for Al-Monitor Turkey Pulse - 7/5/13 The memorable play of Irish author and playwright Samuel Beckett, “Waiting for Godot,” has become a metaphor for situations in which people wait for someone unlikely to come, or do not even know what they are expecting. They just keep waiting and waiting. The handful of [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Aleppo bishop: Christians pained and worried by the fate of kidnapped prelates

May 4, 2013 News

05/03/2013 The fate of Mgrs Yohanna Ibrahim and Boulos Yaziji remains unknown since they were abducted on 22 April, and still presumed to be in the hands of their kidnappers. People are praying so that “they will come back to their communities in the next few days to celebrate Orthodox Easter,” said Archbishop Jeanbart. Aleppo [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Another Armenian church destroyed in Turkey

May 3, 2013 Featured News

3/5/13 PanARMENIAN.Net – Saint Hovhannes Armenian church has been demolished in Turkey, with an Islamic school and a student hostel to be built on the site. Representatives of Siirt city’s branch of Turkey’s human rights union described the destruction of the Armenian church and construction of a new highway on the site of Armenian cemeteries [...]

Tagged as: , ,

Read the full article →

Zakaria Mildanoglu: Turks were turning Armenian churches into cinemas where they were screening porn films

April 30, 2013 News

  27/04/2013 Ermenihaber.am news website published an interview of architect, Istanbul-based Agos daily’s correspondent Zakaria Mildanoglu with “It’s your word” TV program, in which he told about the misfortunes that fell upon his family in 1915 as well as about the reasons why he moved to Istanbul. Mildanoglu also told about the fate of Armenian churches [...]

Tagged as: , , ,

Read the full article →

Protesters mark Armenian Genocide, demand compensation

April 25, 2013 Featured News

Stephen Dockery The Daily Star 24/4/13 BEIRUT: Thousands marched through Beirut Wednesday to call on Turkey to recognize the genocide that involved the systematic slaughter of 1.5 million Armenians nearly a century ago. Draped in the colors of the Armenian flag – red, blue and orange – over 10,000 people marched across east Beirut to Martyrs’ Square in Downtown. [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Israel parliament discusses Armenian genocide case despite reconciliation talks with Turkey

April 25, 2013 News

By Associated Press – 25/4/13 JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament has held a special session on whether to recognize the mass killings of Armenians as genocide, even as the government takes new steps to repair relations with Turkey. Tuesday’s parliamentary debate came a day after senior Israeli officials wrapped up a round of reconciliation talks in Turkey. [...]

Tagged as: , ,

Read the full article →

His Holiness Karekin II and His Holiness Aram I urge Turkey to recognize Armenian Genocide and return Armenian Churches

April 24, 2013 Featured News

Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, Information Services  24/4/13 In 2015, the Armenian people of the Republic of Armenia, the Republic of Nagorno-Karabakh and the diaspora will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide committed by the Ottoman Empire. In 1915, more than 1.5 million Armenians became victims of genocide. The survivors on the roads [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Govt calls for release of Syrian Orthodox archbishops

April 23, 2013 Featured News
The Greek Orthodox archbishop of Aleppo, Paul Yazigi

23/4/13 Concern after the kidnapping of Greek Orthodox and Syriac Orthodox archbishops of Aleppo, Paul Yazigi and Gregorios Yohanna Ibrahim, on the road to Aleppo from the rebel-held Bab al Hawa crossing with Turkey. The Greek government has called for the release of two Syrian bishops kidnapped on Monday by armed rebels in the northern [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

US Secretary Kerry urges Turkey to re-open Halki Seminary of Istanbul

April 23, 2013 Featured News

ISTANBUL – Agence France-Presse 23/4/13 U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry urged Turkey today to re-open Orthodox clergy schools on Heybeliada island near Istanbul that has been kept closed for more than 40 years. “It is our hope that the Halki seminary will open,” Kerry said during a press conference in Istanbul after two days [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Beirut march to mark Armenian genocide

April 19, 2013 News

The Daily Star – 18/4/13 BEIRUT: A committee organizing events to commemorate the 98th anniversary of  the Armenian genocide said a march will take place next week in Downtown  Beirut. “This march aims to reject Turkey’s policy of denial at international forums  and to demand that justice be served and the necessary steps to compensate  [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey: On Murder Anniversary, Doubts Remain Over Christians’ Safety

April 19, 2013 News

19/4/13 On April 18 each year, a small group gathers at a cemetery in the city of Malatya in eastern Turkey to sing hymns and recite prayers at the grave of German missionary Tillman Geske. They are marking the anniversary of Geske’s murder, along with two Turkish converts, at a Christian publishing house here in [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey renovating Georgian church

April 13, 2013 Featured News

13/4/13 Authorities are renovating the Ishkhani Georgian church in northeastern Turkey in a bid to boost tourism numbers in the Black Sea province, the Artvin provincial head of culture has said. Speaking to the Hürriyet Daily Newsin a phone interview, Hüseyin Ateş, the Artvin provincial head of culture, said the city was taking the example of Trabzon and Van. “We [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey building refugee camps for Syrian Christians, Kurds

April 13, 2013 Featured News

13/4/13 Turkey is building two camps along its far southeastern border with Syria to house a growing number of refugees from Syrian minority groups, mainly Assyrian Christians as well as ethnic Kurds, a government official said on Wednesday. More 250,000 Syrians fleeing civil war in their homeland have registered in Turkey, most of whom stay [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

President Gul and Turkey’s Assyrian Question

April 4, 2013 News

Baskin  Oran Translated from Radikal (Turkey) ORİJİNAL  YAZIYI TÜRKÇE OKUYABİLİRSİNİZ 4/4/13 Turkish President Abdullah Gul is someone I admire. He has been “an island of  prudence” for the country during the grim period we have been going through. But  I was seriously disappointed with his visit to Sweden, to which he took the  acting Assyrian [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Armenian church in Turkey rings bell for first time in nearly 100 years

April 2, 2013 Featured News

DİYARBAKIR / ANKARA – Doğan News Agency – 2/4/13 The Armenian community has rung the bells of Diyarbakır’s Surp Giragos Armenian Church for the first time in 98 years to celebrate the Easter holiday, but failed to hold a proper mass due to a lack of priests to take part, Doğan news ageny reported yesterday. [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey restores Armenian churches to boost tourism

April 2, 2013 News

2/4/13 PanARMENIAN.Net -  Turkey has resolved to reconstruct St. Mary’s Church in Gürün town, Sivas Province. According to Ermenihaber.am, Mayor Mehmet Aktaş noted that the initiative is aimed to foster the development of the tourism sector in the province. The Armenian church, dating back to the 19th century, previously served as a prison, later a [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Georgia,Turkey Hold Mosque-for-Church Talks

March 28, 2013 News

Giorgi Lomsadze - 28/3/13 A new mosque will be a bridge between Turkey and Georgia, according to Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmed Davutoğlu, but, depending on how the matter is handled, the sanctuary could also become a wall between the two countries. Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan — the only three mutually friendly countries to be found in [...]

Tagged as: , , ,

Read the full article →

Avramopoulos on Hagia Sophia’s Renovation

March 23, 2013 News

Margarita Papantoniou - 23/3/13 “The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is closely monitoring both the developments concerning Hagia Sophia of Istanbul and the reversal of the Turkish Government’s politics against Christian monuments in its dominion,” reported the Minister Dimitris Avramopoulos in a document forwarded to the Parliament. He pointed out that “Greece and the rest of the [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

Turkey Invites Wary Minorities To Return From Exile

March 22, 2013 Featured News
Turkey

By: Enis Tayman Translated from Radikal (Turkey). 22/3/13 Representatives of non-Muslims who have emigrated from Anatolia have responded to the call by Minister of Culture and Tourism Omer Celik for them to return home. They say they are hopeful but in practice, there are still many questions to answer. President Abdullah Gul, while receiving a Syriac delegation, said, “Do not forget this [...]

Tagged as: , , , ,

Read the full article →

← Previous Entries