Turkey deports peaceful Christians under guise of ‘national security’

Turkey has been accused of deporting hundreds of peaceful Christians under the guise of “national security,” including dozens last year, in a move legal advocates warn is an “attack” on the freedom of religion.

In a Monday address to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), legal expert for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) International, Lidia Rieder, warned 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, reported the ADF.

According to the international watchdog, Turkey’s Ministry of Interior has assigned the individuals targeted by Ankara “security codes,” like as N-82 and G-87, which effectively bars them from ever re-entering the country as it classifies them as a national security threat.

Rieder also reminded the OSCE conference of the “landmark case” Wiest v. Turkey, which is currently before the European Court of Human Rights, and is “expected to set a crucial precedent for the protection of religious freedom in Europe and beyond.”

Kenneth Wiest, a U.S. citizen and a Protestant, was born, raised and then resided legally in Turkey with his wife and three children for over 30 years before he was banned from the country in 2019 upon returning from a trip “without evidence of wrongdoing.”

His case is just the latest in what is increasingly viewed as discriminatory policies that persecute religious minorities since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took office more than a decade ago.