CIRCULATION CODE 3. OPEN. May be circulated to general mailing lists, outside organizations, and quoted from freely in reports citing "Middle East Concern" as the source of the information.

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The Legal Committee of the Alliance of Protestant Churches of Turkey recently issued a report on the legal difficulties concerning church buildings.

Changes were made in 2003 to some Turkish laws relating to places of worship as part of the process of harmonising Turkey's laws with the European Union. Prior to this, there was no legal structure to create, establish or maintain new church buildings. The principle change was to replace the word "mosque" with the phrase "place of worship". However, the initial optimism of churches in Turkey has given way to disappointment as significant obstacles persist in at least three areas as described by a recent report issued by "The Legal Committee of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey".

First, municipality heads have responsibility for approving churches' applications to obtain or develop property under local zoning regulations. However, the process for acceptance or rejection has not been formalised. Churches have found that this lack of clarity has provided scope for discrimination against Christians (and other religious minorities) by local officials. Turkish Christians recognise that some of this discrimination may be based on ignorance and are calling for a programme of training for local officials involved.

Second, land bought with the intention of building a place of worship are required to be a minimum of 2,500 square metres (approximately half a soccer pitch). Acquiring plots this size in major cities is not only very expensive but also unnecessary for most churches. Turkish Christians would like the minimum size requirement removed from the zoning laws, thereby allowing smaller places of worship to be developed and officially recognised.

Third, there is no legal mechanism for churches to re-acquire historical church properties currently under the control of the Ministry of Culture. Turkish Christians are calling for churches to be allowed to re-acquire these properties, to restore them as places of worship. They are also calling for permission to use these and other church properties for wider ministry purposes, such as the establishment of schools and community centres. Currently this would be considered illegal.

Turkish Christians request our prayers that:

a. Local officials are effectively trained to operate in an impartial manner

b. The minimum size requirement will be removed from the zoning laws

c. Historical church property will be made available to churches once again

d. The restrictions limiting church property to purely religious services and meetings will be lifted

December 2008