Turkey has deported hundreds of foreign Christians citing “national security” concerns as part of a broader crackdown by the Muslim-majority nation, several investigators confirmed.
Worthy News learned Thursday that the issue was raised at the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) meeting in Warsaw.
Lidia Rieder, legal expert of the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, told delegates that Turkey is systematically targeting Christians purely “for practicing their faith.”
“Turkey’s labeling of peaceful Christian residents as ‘security threats’ is a clear misuse of law and an attack on freedom of religion or belief,” Rieder said during the OSCE Warsaw Human Dimension Conference.
“When governments manipulate administrative or immigration systems to exclude people based solely on their faith, it undermines both the rule of law and the very principles of tolerance and peaceful coexistence that the OSCE was founded to protect.”
Since 2020, more than 350 foreign Christian workers and their family members have been expelled from Turkey, including at least 35 cases between December 2024 and January 2025, according to the ADF.
The international watchdog said Turkey’s Ministry of Interior assigned those targeted “security codes,” such as N-82 and G-87, effectively barring them from re-entering the country by labeling them national security threats.
Rieder also reminded the OSCE conference of the “landmark case” Wiest v. Turkey, currently before the European Court of Human Rights, which is expected to set a precedent for protecting religious freedom across Europe.
Rights groups said Kenneth Wiest, a U.S. citizen and Protestant, was born, raised, and lived legally in Turkey with his wife and three children for over 30 years before being banned from the country in 2019 upon returning from a trip without any evidence of wrongdoing.
His case is seen as part of broader policies viewed by church observers as discriminatory against religious and faith minorities since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan consolidated power more than a decade ago.
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