Abdullah Bozkurt/Stockholm
A recent court case in Turkey has revealed that the Turkish intelligence agency, Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı (MIT), clandestinely surveilled members of the Protestant community in Turkey. The agency closely monitored their activities and labeled non-Turkish members as spies, asserting that they posed a national security threat to the country.
As a result, many individuals flagged by MIT faced deportation, had their residence permits revoked or not renewed, and, in some instances, were denied entry visas upon attempting to re-enter the country after a trip or holiday.
MIT’s secret surveillance program of Protestant Christians was exposed when the Constitutional Court published its ruling, which detailed the legal battles in lower courts. The ruling provided insight into how the intelligence agency targeted Protestants simply because they did not belong to the majority Muslim population.
As expected, the Constitutional Court, dominated by loyalists of the Islamist government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, found no rights violations in the case of Protestants who were unfairly targeted, singled out and forced to leave Turkey.
The ruling, announced on June 7, was lauded by the government-controlled media in Turkey, which portrayed members of the Protestant community as secret spies attempting to harm the nation under the guise of religious work.
The case originated from complaints filed separately by Protestant members in Turkey: Australian citizens Benjamin Charles McLure and Nathan James Bradtke; German citizens Helmut Frank and Michael Robert; and US citizens Amanda Jolyn Krause, Benjamin Tyler Wood, Robert Andrew Hoard, Jeremy Lauren Lambert and an individual identified only by the initials M.R.F.
The Constitutional Court merged all the separate cases into one and ruled that their complaints regarding violations of religious freedoms lacked merit, thereby dismissing the case. The court stated that deportations, entry bans and the denial of residence permits did not constitute violations of their rights, asserting that the government has sovereign authority to make decisions on immigration cases.
All of the plaintiffs had legal residence permits in Turkey when the Turkish migration agency, Migration Management Authority (Göç İdaresi Başkanlığınca), part of the Interior Ministry, decided to mark their files with the secret code N-82, indicating they posed a threat to Turkey’s national security. The migration agency’s decision was based on secret intelligence reports received from MIT.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling found no rights violation in the secret codes that labeled foreign nationals in Turkey’s Protestant community as security threats.
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As a result of this secret profiling, the residence permits of some applicants were canceled, deportation orders were issued for others, and some applicants who traveled abroad for vacation were unable to re-enter Turkey due to the rejection of their visa applications by Turkish consulates abroad.
On the surface, the N82 code does not constitute an entry ban to Turkey, as individuals profiled with this code are required to obtain pre-approval before entering the country. However, in practice, it functions as an entry ban because all those urged to apply for pre-approval were rejected by Turkish consulates based on this code and MIT reports.
Several plaintiffs filed lawsuits against the migration agency’s decisions in the first-instance administrative courts, but their cases were unsuccessful when the judges ruled that Turkey has sovereign rights in determining who may enter the country and who may be granted residence. Their appeals to the regional appellate courts were also unsuccessful, leading them to escalate the matter to the Constitutional Court based on violations of their fundamental human rights. However, this attempt proved futile.
The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), whose decisions are binding on Turkey, now stands as the last resort. However, the fact that the Erdogan government has chosen not to enforce ECtHR judgments in some cases leaves the Protestant community with little hope, even if the Strasbourg-based rights court were to rule in their favor.
The Constitutional Court’s ruling details the legal battles each applicant endured in attempting to reverse the decisions of the migration agency, all ending in unsuccessful outcomes. With the exception of one case, the courts primarily relied on MIT reports regarding the marking of plaintiffs with the N82 security risk code. The content of these MIT reports was not disclosed to the victims, leaving them unaware of the alleged activities deemed threats to Turkey’s national security. Consequently, they were deprived of their rights to defend themselves against the charges, as the MIT reports were not shared with them or their attorneys.
None of the plaintiffs were charged with any criminal offenses, and no criminal investigations were ever pursued against any of them. They believe that members of the Protestant community were deliberately singled out as part of an undeclared government policy, discriminated against and that their rights to religious freedom, a fair trial and an effective remedy were violated.
In a rare case, the deportation decision for Lambert provided some clues as to how Turkish authorities blacklisted members of the Protestant community. According to the court case, MIT cited Lambert’s attendance at a Christian convention held in Turkey’s Mediterranean resort province of Antalya between January 30 and February 2, 2019 as a major threat to the nation’s security.
MIT stated that approximately 120 individuals, primarily from the US, Germany and the UK, participated in the conference with the aim of promoting missionary work in Turkey and establishing a federation-type platform to gain recognition from the Turkish state. This indicates that all 120 participants were put under surveillance by the intelligence agency and were deemed security threats.
Although missionary work is not criminalized in the Turkish penal code, MIT invented a new criminal category on its own, which Turkish courts appeared to have accepted despite it lacking a basis in law. Furthermore, under the Turkish legal system, intelligence reports cannot be used as evidence in lawsuits unless they are corroborated by an independent investigation conducted by public prosecutors and subject to court review.
The convention deemed a threat to Turkey was organized by the Izmir-based Association of Protestant Churches (Protestan Kiliseler Derneği), a legally established entity. This association annually sponsors the event, known as the Family Conference, which has been held in a transparent manner for the past 20 years.
The restrictions imposed on religious workers with security threat codes, such as N82, reached a peak in 2019, according to a report issued in June 2023 by the Association of Protestant Churches. By 2022 almost all significant foreign religious workers had already been banned from entering Turkey, undermining the work of the Protestant community in Turkey under difficult circumstances.
A small number of Protestants were also classified with the G-87 code, signifying a general security threat typically applied to foreign fighters, terrorists and criminals. This code mandates a five-year entry ban. In recent years, Turkish authorities have also begun applying a Ç-152 code, another entry ban that applies for a year. Nearly 200 people were classified under this code, even though many had legally lived in Turkey for years.
The report underlined an increased threat of hate speech, hate crimes and violence against churches, their clergy and congregation members. It also highlighted instances where some members or local employees of Protestant churches were approached by the Turkish intelligence service to act as informants.
The issue of obtaining official recognition as places of worship for Protestant churches persists. Additionally, several Protestants were denied Turkish citizenship despite being married to Turkish citizens and fulfilling all the requirements for naturalization.
Nearly all challenges to wrongful classification in administrative courts have resulted in unfavorable rulings. Moreover, the government did not enforce the rare judgments in which plaintiffs obtained positive outcomes in administrative courts, compelling victims to initiate another round of the litigation process. This is a costly and time-consuming effort for the victims.
Rulings by the Constitutional Court and other courts against Protestants align with the Turkish government’s secret policy of deliberately targeting Christians in Turkey. This policy was exposed when Nordic Monitor published top-secret documents from the National Security Council (MGK) in April 2021. The document classified the legal activities of Christian faith groups in Turkey, such as Catholics, Orthodox Christians and Protestants, as threats to the sustainability and viability of the Turkish state.
The documents confirmed that the Turkish state profiled dozens of Christian groups in Turkey and abroad. They proposed controversial measures to halt their work and instructed all government agencies, including the military, police and intelligence, to monitor and thwart their projects.
The assessment made by the multi-agency task force, composed of MIT, the General Staff, the MGK Secretariat, diplomats and police, claimed that Christian missionary activities have been expanding across the country. They asserted that these activities were exploiting the freedoms granted by national and international laws and had reached a level that posed a threat to Turkish national interests.
An action plan was developed to undermine the work of Christians in Turkey and was sent to the government for execution. It appears that the Erdogan government has been enforcing this action plan ever since.
