Turkey: Bridging East and West?

'The holy heart can be hurt. But it answers injury with love and prayer and forgiveness." -W. E. McCumber

Turkey is often thought of as a bridge between two cultures. Even though Turkey is an Islamic state, it is also secular and has great tourist appeal. Many people see Turkey as the answer to bridging the differences between the East and the West, but is it also a country who is at war with itself? Is the attitude of the country shifting to somthing more intolerant than they have ever experienced before? This month we saw the story of the three martyrs of Malatya and how all of Turkey was shaken at their horrific murders. We heard how these martyrs accepted the young men who ended up killing them into their lives even though they knew the young men had ulterior motives for seeking them out. But even more amazing was the public testimony of forgiveness shared by the martyrs' wives after their death. Here is faith in action and how it answers the injury done to it. This is no human response, but an act of the divine that transends our human will. May we all be humbled and inspired by their testimonies and our hearts open to the Spirit's leading.
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Turkey

Basic Info: Turkey is located in both Southeastern Europe and Southwestern Asia (the portion of Turkey west of the Bosporus is geographically part of Europe). It is between Greece and Syria and borders the Black Sea, the Aegean Sea and the Mediterranean Sea. It is slightly larger than Texas and it has a strategic location controlling the Turkish Straits that link the Black and Aegean Seas. Mount Ararat, the legendary landing place of Noah's ark, is in the far eastern portion of the country. The country has severe earthquakes, especially in the north, but the three active volcanoes have not erupted since the 19th century or earlier. Of the 78,785,548 (July 2011 est.) population, 70% is urban and 17.11% is below the poverty line. (Turkish 70-75%, Kurdish 18%, other minorities 7-12%) Turkish is the official language, but there are Kurdish and other minority languages. There is a 15 months conscript obligation for non-university graduates, and 6-12 months for university graduates.

Government: Present day Turkey was founded in 1923 from part of the aftermath of the Ottoman Empire. It was founded by national hero Mustafa Kemal, who was later honored with the title Ataturk or "Father of the Turks." Under his authoritarian leadership, the country adopted wide-ranging social, legal, and political reforms. After a period of one-party rule, an experiment with multi-party politics led to the 1950 election victory of the opposition Democratic Party and the peaceful transfer of power. Since then, Turkish political parties have multiplied, but democracy has been fractured by periods of instability and intermittent military coups (1960, 1971, 1980), which in each case eventually resulted in a return of political power to civilians. In 1997, the military again helped engineer the ouster - popularly dubbed a "post-modern coup" - of the then Islamic-oriented government. Turkey intervened militarily on Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover of the island and has since acted as patron state to the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus," which only Turkey recognizes. A separatist insurgency begun in 1984 by the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) - now known as the People's Congress of Kurdistan or Kongra-Gel (KGK) - has dominated the Turkish military's attention and claimed more than 30,000 lives. After the capture of the group's leader in 1999, the insurgents largely withdrew from Turkey mainly to northern Iraq. In 2004, KGK announced an end to its ceasefire and attacks attributed to the KGK increased. Turkey joined the UN in 1945 and in 1952 it became a member of NATO. In 1964, Turkey became an associate member of the European Community. Over the past decade, it has undertaken many reforms to strengthen its democracy and economy; it began accession membership talks with the European Union in 2005. The current government is a republican parliamentary democracy. The president, Abdullah Gul, is elected directly for a five-year term (eligible for a second term) and the prime minister is appointed by the president from among members of parliament. The unicameral Grand National Assembly of Turkey has 550 seats and members elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms. The national public broadcaster Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT) operates multiple TV and radio networks and stations. There are multiple privately-owned national television stations and up to 300 private regional and local television stations. Multi-channel cable TV subscriptions are obtainable and there are more than 1,000 private radio broadcast stations.

Economy: Turkey's economy is increasingly driven by its industry and service sectors, although its traditional agriculture sector still accounts for about 30% of employment. An aggressive privatization program has reduced state involvement in basic industry, banking, transport, and communication. An emerging middle-class of entrepreneurs is adding to the economy. Turkey's traditional textiles and clothing sectors still account for one-third of industrial employment, despite stiff competition in international markets. Other sectors, notably the automotive, construction, and electronics industries, are rising in importance and have surpassed textiles within Turkey's export mix. Oil began to flow through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in May 2006, marking a major milestone that will bring up to 1 million barrels per day from the Caspian to market. Several gas pipelines also are being planned to help move Central Asian gas to Europe via Turkey, which will help address Turkey's dependence on energy imports over the long term. After Turkey experienced a severe financial crisis in 2001, Ankara adopted financial and fiscal reforms as part of an IMF program. The reforms strengthened the country's economic fundamentals and ushered in an era of strong growth. Turkey's well-regulated financial markets and banking system weathered the global financial crisis and GDP rebounded strongly. Further economic and judicial reforms and prospective EU membership are expected to boost Turkey's attractiveness to foreign investors. However, Turkey's relatively high current account deficit, uncertainty related to policy-making, and fiscal imbalances leave the economy vulnerable to destabilizing shifts in investor confidence. Currently, about 25.3% of the population between the ages of 15 and 24 are unemployed.

Religion: Muslim 99.8% (mostly Sunni), other 0.2% (mostly Christians and Jews)
Turkey played a significant part in the early Christian Church as the centre of much of the Apostle Paul's work. However, the country became the guardian of Islam for centuries when the Ottoman Empire was established in 1299. Today, most of the Muslim population has never heard the gospel. Since the sweeping reforms of the 1920s, Turkey has officially been a secular state. There is, however, a fault line between Islamists and secularists. Despite the government reforms to facilitate joining the European Union, there is no indication of increasing religious freedom. While the Turkish constitution includes freedom of religion, worship services are only permitted in "buildings created for this purpose," and officials have restricted the construction of buildings for minority religions. The few who dare to openly profess Christ face harassment, threats, and imprisonment. Recent death threats and murders of Christians highlight the present reality and severity of persecution and the likelihood of more to come. In 2006, two men were arrested for sharing their faith. They were charged with “insulting Turkishness, the military and Islam.” Four years later, a Turkish court finally acquitted them but fined them $3,200 CAD each. In April 2007, three members of Malayta Kurtulus Church were tortured and killed by a group of five Muslims. Presently the trial of the five alleged murderers continues, but if they do not go forward with the trial by April 2012, there is the possibility that they will go free. In June 2008, Turkish Pastor Orhan Picaklar was accused of insulting the prophet Mohammed and the police, and performing a marriage ceremony in the church (which is forbidden by law). Pastor Picaklar denied the charges.

Info compiled from CIAWorldFactBook “Turkey”; www.persecution.net “Turkey”
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