RELIGIOUS (UN)FREEDOM IN TURKEY: LONG-RESIDENT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002097

SIPDIS

DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE

E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/12/2015
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM TU OSCE
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS (UN)FREEDOM IN TURKEY: LONG-RESIDENT
PASTOR GIVEN 15 DAYS TO DEPART COUNTRY

REF: A. ANKARA 2061

B. ANKARA 1935

C. ANKARA 1511

D. ANKARA 814

Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b and d.


1. (U) Summary: Authorities have given a long-resident Amcit
Protestant pastor 15 days to depart Turkey because he does
not have a work or residence permit. The pastor has been
performing missionary work in Turkey for 20 years, and
departs the country every three months to renew his tourist
visa. It is not clear whether immigration officials will
allow him to return this time. The pastor is engaged in a
series of court battles to win legal status for his Ankara
church. His expulsion order comes amid a broad GOT campaign
against missionaries. He fears the small church may not
survive if he is unable to return for an extended period.
End Summary.

--------------
Police Give Pastor 15 Days to Depart
--------------


2. (U) Daniel Wickwire, pastor of the Batikent Protestant
Church in Ankara, called the Embassy April 12 to tell us that
police last week notified him he would have to leave Turkey
in 15 days because he does not have a residence or work
permit. An American who has been performing missionary work
in Turkey for the past 20 years, he is officially a tourist.
Every three months he has to leave the country to renew his
tourist visa. He had already planned to travel to the Greek
islands on April 20, the date his 15-day deadline ends, for
his routine departure. Now, however, he does not know
whether he will be allowed back in. The police ordered him
to depart, but did not say anything about whether he can
return.

--------------
Pastor Has Long Fought for Legal Status
--------------


3. (U) Wickwire has been fighting a series of court battles
for the past two and a half years with the goal of forcing
the Turkish bureaucracy to accept his church as a legal place
of worship. His story provides insight into how missionaries
operate in Turkey, and how the State utilizes laws and
regulations to discourage Christian religious activity.


4. (C) Like many missionaries in Turkey, Wickwire started out
as a high school teacher. He says he was fired from a
position at Ataturk Lisesi when school officials discovered
he was proselytizing at home on his own time -- he claims
they falsely accused him of proselytizing on the job. He
later ran an unauthorized church out of his home for 10 years
before opening the Batikent church in August 2002. Along the
way, he studied Islamic theology at Ankara University


5. (U) Wickwire now runs what Protestants in Turkey refer to
as the "most legal" church in the country. Unlike other
Protestant pastors, he refuses to register his church as a
religious/charity association or otherwise conform to the
vagaries of Turkish law regarding places of worship. As far
as he is concerned, the Turkish Constitution guarantees
religious freedom, and he intends to hold the Turkish
government to that standard.


6. (U) He has had considerable success in court -- in a
series of precedent-setting rulings, courts have supported
his right to register his place of worship as a "church."
The Interior Ministry appealed the latest ruling to the
Danistay (the administrative high appeals court, which has a
reputation for ruling against foreign companies),which is
expected to issue a final decision on the case this year. In
a separate case, the Danistay last month ruled that the
Batikent church is entitled to free water, just as mosques
are, a decision Wickwire views as a good omen for the broader
case on the church's status.

--------------
Church Survival Could Be At Risk
--------------


7. (U) He fears, however, that all his legal success might
come to nothing if immigration authorities bar him from
re-entry on his return from Greece. Wickwire said local
residents have been pressuring his once-supportive landlord
to evict him from the church (he rents the property because
he lacks the legal resident status required to buy real
estate). When his lease ends in July, he will have to find a
new location for the church.


8. (C) The Batikent church is a small operation. Wickwire
employs a secretary and a groundskeeper. On an average
Sunday he draws about 30-40 worshippers, mostly Turks with a
few foreigners mixed in. He said the church distributes
50-100 bibles and other religious books a day and converts
one or two people a week. Church members also conduct
charitable activity, such as giving away free medicine. His
home church in Los Angeles pays his salary, and he collects
tithes from members and the occasional donation from groups
of Christians visiting from other countries. Altogether, he
is just barely raising the USD 2,000 per month needed to keep
the church going.


9. (U) Wickwire said police two years ago gave his wife a
similar order to depart the country. While she was in the
U.S., church lawyers successfully challenged the order, and
she was back in Turkey in a matter of weeks. He is confident
he could also fight his way back in through the courts if he
is barred from returning. But he's afraid the church might
not survive if he is kept out of the country for too long,
particularly if he does not return before the lease expires.


10. (U) He said it is always difficult to predict how
authorities will react. Many foreigners in Turkey can
routinely extend tourist visas for six months at a time, or
even up to a year or more, without leaving the country. But
Wickwire said police have openly told him he cannot receive
more than a 3-month visa because he is a missionary. Labor
Ministry officials, meanwhile, have told him they cannot
issue him a work permit for the same reason.


11. (C) Past practice indicates authorities may not keep him
out of the country for long, if at all. But it is possible
that Wickwire's court victories have heightened the concerns
of a security and religious establishment that views
missionaries as a threat to national unity and identity. It
is also possible the GOT has decided to crack down on
Batikent church as part of its broader anti-missionary
campaign (reftels). Wickwire said the campaign has "turned
up the heat" on missionaries. Protestants say authorities
have recently become more stingy about issuing visas to
missionaries or Christians they suspect of being
missionaries. We have also been told by an American woman
(with no missionary background) married to a Turkish
businessman that, for the first time in 17 years of residence
in Turkey, she faces an unexplained delay in renewal of her
residence permit.

--------------
Comment
--------------


12. (C) The pattern of court victories followed by
bureaucratic harassment in this case illustrates the problems
faced by Protestants and other religious minorities in
Turkey. The Constitution guarantees religious freedom, and
the law does not prohibit opening churches or proselytizing.
But it is virtually impossible to register officially a
church without calling it an "association." Association
status involves onerous reporting requirements and Interior
Ministry monitoring. A few Protestant churches have pursued
the association option, made possible by recent legal
reforms. Church members note, however, that the law does not
explicitly authorize associations to conduct religious
services. They have told us they fear that on any given
Sunday police could raid their services and arrest them for
conducting illegal activities. This is precisely the
situation Wickwire has been striving to avoid. Now his fate
rests on whether immigration officials allow him to return
and continue his efforts.


EDELMAN