TURKEY CLOSES DOWN PROTESTANT CHURCH

[Yervant1]

So called secular country where other faiths are not welcome!

TURKEY CLOSES DOWN PROTESTANT CHURCH

Cross Map
Oct 1 2014

Turkish authorities have sealed a Protestant church in Southeast
Turkey and ordered its American pastor fined and deported on charges of
"working illegally."

Lawyers filed a court appeal Sept. 26 to postpone the deportation,
protesting what Turkey's Association of Protestant Churches called an
"absolutely arbitrary" ruling against the Gaziantep congregation and
its foreign pastor.

Local police officials sealed the premises of the New Life Church on
Aug. 28. Just over two weeks later, on Sept. 14, they detained its
pastor, Patrick Jensen, with order from Turkey's Interior Ministry
to deport him immediately.

A U.S. citizen living in Gaziantep since 2005, Jensen was ordered to
pay 3,043 Turkish Lira (US $1,350) for violating Law No. 5326 of the
Turkish labor laws, which require a work permit for legal employment
status. He declined to pay the fine, contending he was a volunteer
serving in the church, which he said an inspection board under the
Labor Ministry had mistakenly classified as a place of business.

After inquiries by Jensen's lawyer the day after his arrest, the pastor
signed a document permitting his deportation order to be appealed to
Gaziantep's Administrative Court.

Jensen was held for 30 hours, then allowed to return home while his
case is pending. But his Turkish residence permit, valid through
November 2015, was cancelled, with a temporary 30-day permit issued
until the court rules on his appeal, which will be conducted by legal
briefs, not oral argument.

Jensen started the small Protestant congregation nine years ago,
when he and his family moved to Gaziantep. Between 30 and 40 adults
attend the Turkish worship services each Sunday, he said.

"The authorities' attitude toward us has changed in the last six
months," he told World Watch Monitor. "It seemed we were being viewed
negatively, as if we were enemies. Some pressure is being put on us,
although our open presence and activities here had not been an issue
before."

Without any other options for a place of worship, the church group
has met informally in a park for several Sundays, and then in private
homes.

The fledgling congregation has not yet applied for official status
as an association, which is the only legal option open to register
new Christian congregations.

"Foreign clergy are experiencing problems with work permits," General
Secretary Umut Sahin of the Association of Protestant Churches told
Agos newspaper after the Gaziantep church was sealed. "It is not clear
according to which criteria they say yes or no. Currently only four
Protestant church leaders have been able to obtain this visa status."

Despite an estimated 5,000 Protestant Christians meeting in 120
small congregations in Turkey, the state prohibits institutions for
the theological training of their clergy. The same ban prevents the
traditional Orthodox, Armenian and Syriac communities from opening
seminaries for their local priests and church workers.

"So new faith groups, particular those who are small and relatively
new, need foreign clergy," observed Mine Yildirim, head of the
Norwegian Helsinki Committee's Freedom of Belief Initiative Project in
Turkey, told Agos. "However, there is no open, simple and clear way
to bring these people here officially. As a result...with whatever
excuse, officials can easily punish people, marginalizing them by
calling them illegal workers."

http://www.crossmap.com/news/turkey-closes-down-protestant-church-12518