News

Turkey prevents conference featuring Christian scholars and discussing years before, during and after genocide

October 8, 2019

“This kind of conference covers several subject matters that the government has a long history of suppressing. The years 1850-1950 cover the years immediately before, during, and after Turkey’s genocide of Christians. Many of those Christians who survived the genocide now have descendants living in Greece and Armenia. Turkey consistently denies the genocide and makes every attempt at blocking efforts to raise awareness about Turkey’s historical record of persecution.”

Over 1,000,000 Greek Orthodox Christians were massacred in the Ottoman Empire during this period. Also, between 1894 and 1924 the Ottoman government also pursued the systematic extermination of 1.5 million Armenians, mostly Ottoman citizens within the Ottoman Empire and its successor state, the Republic of Turkey. Hundreds of thousands of people were forcibly converted to Islam. To this day, the Turkish government refuses to acknowledge this atrocity as a genocide.

As we continue to see our own Mother Church of Constantinople suffering from religious persecution, we remember these horrifying events, note with sorrow the persecution of Christians in the Middle East and elsewhere today, and pray that such inhumanity will never again be seen anywhere in the world.

For previous ChristianPersecution.com coverage of the persecution of Christians in Turkey, see here.

“Turkey Prevents Kayseri Conference,” International Christian Concern, October 6, 2019:

10/06/2019 Turkey (International Christian Concern) – After weeks of ignoring requests from the Hrant Dink Foundation, an organization founded after the assassination of an Armenian journalist, to organize a conference mid-October, Kayseri has denied the request because of security issues. The conference would discuss issues relating to the local changes in Kayseri between 1850 and 1950. Several scholars were invited, including many from Greece and Armenia. The Hrant Dink Foundation intends to proceed with the conference in Istanbul.

This kind of conference covers several subject matters that the government has a long history of suppressing. The years 1850-1950 cover the years immediately before, during, and after Turkey’s genocide of Christians. Many of those Christians who survived the genocide now have descendants living in Greece and Armenia. Turkey consistently denies the genocide and makes every attempt at blocking efforts to raise awareness about Turkey’s historical record of persecution.

The freedom of expression is severely restricted in Turkey. For Christians, many of whom are still suffering the consequences of genocide, this restriction is doubly oppressive….

Photo by Валерий Дед, CC BY 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56758192