TURKEY, THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN

The Republic of Turkey is located in southeastern Europe, and comprises part of Kurdistan in the east, all the mountainous peninsula known as Asia Minor or Anatolia (Anadolu) and part of Thrace in the southeast extremity of Europe. With 95 percent of its land located in Asia, Turkey is bound on the north by the Black Sea, on the northeast by Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan, on the east by Iran, on the southeast by Iraq, on the south by Syria and the Mediterranean Sea, on the west by the Aegean Sea, and on the northwest by Greece and Bulgaria. The region is mountainous, particularly in the northeast and east, while the central area is plateau. Numerous lakes as well as rivers cross Turkey, and its coastline is extensive, although the country has claim to only a few nearby islands. Agricultural products include wheat, barley, corn, rice, olives and tobacco, while natural resources consist of coal, iron ore, chromium, copper and mercury. Of historic and economic importance, Turkey controls the straits linking the Black Sea and the Aegean.

As a bridge between East and West, Turkey is the site of one of the oldest civilized regions in the world; the massive ruins of the ancient Hittite Empire, for example, are still evident in the interior. Controlled by Ottomans for much of its recent history, Turkey gained independence in 1919 and was proclaimed a republic four years later. Although neutral during World War II, Turkey joined NATO in 1951. Relations between Turkey and Greece continue to be strained following Turkey's invasion of Cyprus in 1974 to prevent a Greek takeover. Turkey is 80 percent ethnic Turkish, although a Kurdish minority lives in Kurdistan in the southeast, and various other ethnic groups still exist in the interior. The violence perpetrated by Kurdish nationalists continued to draw condemnation from human rights groups into 2000.

History to Ottoman Rule . Most of Asia Minor belonged to the Persian Empire, while Greek colonies were established along the coasts. Under Alexander the Great the area became Hellenized and Greek-speaking in varying degrees. During the 2d century b.c. it gradually came under the Romans, developing into a populous and prosperous part of the empire. Many Jewish colonies, in close contact with Jerusalem, facilitated the spread of Christianity by affording points of contact for the first missionaries, especially St. Paul, himself a native of Tarsus on the southeast coast. The Epistles of St. Paul; Acts of the Apostles; Revelation, addressed to the seven churches of Asia; the letters of St. ignatius of antioch; and other early Christian writings attested to the numerous Christian communities throughout the area. The region also became a home for early heresies: in the 2d century Montanism established itself in the interior; later it was the center for Christological heresies, for Manichaeism and for Iconoclasm. At the same time, it was the residence of many famous Fathers of the Church, the scene of the earliest councils and of a highly organized ecclesiastical structure: by the mid-7th century Asia Minor contained 33 metropolitan sees with about 440 suffragans.

Despite Muslim efforts to penetrate the area, Turkey remained in Roman (Byzantine) control through most of the early Middle Ages, although the eastern frontier was constantly shifting. By the time of the death of Basil II (1025) the entire region seemed securely in byzantine possession, but civil strife and the incursions of the Seljuk Turks hastened its decline. The disastrous defeat of the Byzantines by the Turks at Manzikert in 1071 opened up the whole of Asia Minor, so that ten years later the capital of the Turkish Sultanate of Rum was established as far west as Nicaea (Iznik). In 1097, however, Nicaea was taken by the crusaders, who then advanced through Asia Minor, enabling the Byzantine emperor to recover much of his former domain. During the Latin occupation of Constantinople (1204–61), the emperors settled in Nicaea; on returning to Constantinople they became more and more involved in European politics to the detriment of their eastern defenses, and by 1300 the Turks controlled almost all of western Anatolia.

Under Ottoman Rule . The early 14th century saw the Seljuks decline, only to be replaced by a more militant group, the ottoman turks. While continuing their eastern conquests, the Ottomans also crossed the Dardanelles to Gallipoli in 1354, and a decade later had Adrianople in their hands. In 1387 Thessalonica fell after a long siege, and the Balkans were then rapidly subdued. Finally, under Sultan Mohammed II, on May 29, 1453, they stormed Constantinople, which as Istanbul would remain their capital until 1923, when the capital was transferred to Ankara. In the course of the 15th and 16th centuries the borders of the Ottoman Empire expanded in all directions, reaching their greatest extent in about the mid-17th century. The Turkish Sultan ruled all of the Near East, North Africa as far as Algeria, all of the Balkans, Hungary and the Crimean area, advancing in the West to the walls of Vienna. But the same period also began Ottoman decline, a result of internal inefficiency and corruption and by external foes, chiefly Austria and later Russia.

During the 19th century most of the Balkan states recovered their freedom, and as a result of World War I, the Turks lost most of their Arab territories, reducing the country more or less to its present borders. A movement of national resurgence was led by Mustafa Kemal, who was also known as Atatürk; the sultanate was abolished on Nov. 22, 1922, and the republic proclaimed on Oct. 29, 1923. Atatürk introduced a series of revolutionary reforms designed to modernize the country: Islam was no longer the state religion; the civil code, the calendar and even the manner of dress were all Westernized. In 1928 the Latin alphabet was made obligatory.

Turkish Policy toward Christianity . The 11th-century Turkish establishment in Asia Minor initiated a gradual change from a predominantly Christian, Greek-speaking population to an Islamic Turkish one. Many Christians, particularly after 1453, chose to emigrate, while those who remained, largely Greek Orthodox and Armenian, were subjected to many restrictions, although allowed a certain autonomy as a millet (nation) under the rule of their patriarch. Protected by European powers, chiefly France, Catholic missionaries were able to work in the Ottoman Empire, particularly among the Eastern Christians in Syria, Iraq and Egypt. But in the 19th century, national revolutions in the Balkans accompanied by European interference led the Turks to take severe anti-Christian measures, culminating in a series of brutal massacres lasting well into the 20th century, in which the Armenians suffered the worst. The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923, which settled the Greco-Turkish war, exchanged the Greeks in Anatolia for the Muslims in Greece, with the exception of those in Thrace and the Greek community in Istanbul.

Into the 21st Century . Atatürk's reforms continued under his party's leadership until 1950, when the country

held free elections and brought to power the opposition. A decade later a military coup wrestled power for a short time, and although a military government would seize power again from 1971–73, Turkey found itself increasingly influenced by a religious revival sparked by conservative Islamic political factions who pushed traditional Muslim values as a means of stabilizing both society and the economy. The country's relationship with neighboring Greece as well as the world were strained during the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, although the situation normalized internationally by 1978. Meanwhile, diplomatic relations between Turkey and the Holy See had been established by Pope John XXIII in 1959, a move that did little to calm the growing hostility of Islamic fundamentalists desirous of making Turkey a Muslim state. In addition, ethnic tensions between Turks, Kurds and Armenians simmered, reaching a state of military emergency in the mid-1980s, as Kurds demanded an independent Kurdistan. Military action taken against Kurdish rebels in 1995 drew condemnation from human rights groups and resulted in the collapse of the moderate government and brought a pro-Islamic party to power. Into 2000 the balance of power in Turkey remained tenuous, as Islamic fundamentalists continued to agitate for the creation of a Muslim state, and its application for membership in the European Union remained on hold. However, under the leadership of Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit, economic reforms were underway that were viewed as stabilizing the economy and rebuilding the confidence of foreign investors.

By 2000 Turkey had 52 parishes, tended by 15 diocesan and 49 religious priests, as well as 12 brothers and 115 sisters. In addition to the Latin-rite and Eastern-rite Catholics, a Greek Orthodox community continued to reside in Istanbul under the jurisdiction of the patriarch of constantinople, and a small Syriac Christian community remained in the southeast. Government attempts to

halt the rising Islamic influence included a ban on the wearing of religious head coverings in public buildings and a 1997 mandate that children attend eight years of public school before being allowed to attend religious academies. Scattered outbreaks of violence were directed by fundamentalists groups toward Christians, including a grenade thrown on the grounds of the Ecumenical Orthodox Patriarchate in Istanbul in 1996 and the bombing of a Greek Orthodox Church in 1998. The state-run Office of Foundations regulated the activities of religious minorities, and recognized only the three faiths covered in the 1923 Lausanne Treaty: Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Jewish. Roman Catholics, as an "unrecognized minority," were confined to existing churches, classified as "diplomatic property." In 2001 Pope John Paul II encouraged Church leaders to develop closer relations with Turkey's Orthodox, commenting that "the Church of Christ must be truly involved in the life of Turkish society."

See Also: armenian christianity

Bibliography: w. m. ramsay, The Historical Geography of Asia Minor (London 1890); The Cities and Bishoprics of Phrygia, 2 v. (Oxford 1895–97). m. f. kÖprÜlÜ, Les Origines de l'empire ottoman (Paris 1936). a. h. m. jones, The Cities of the Eastern Roman Provinces (New York 1937). p. wittek, The Rise of the Ottoman Empire (London 1938). j. k. birge, A Guide to Turkish Area Study (Washington 1949). d. magie, Roman Rule in Asia Minor, 2 v. (Princeton, NJ 1950). f. babinger, Mehmed der Eroberer (Munich 1953). c. cahen, "Le Problème ethnique en Anatolie," Journal of World History, 2 (1954) 347–362. A History of the Crusades, ed. k. m. setton et al., (Philadelphia 1955–). f. taeschner, Encyclopedia of Islam, ed. b. lewis et al. (2d ed. Leiden 1954–) 1:461–480. s. vryonis, Problems in the History of Byzantine Anatolia (Ankara 1963); The Decline of Medieval Hellenism in Asia Minor and the Process of Islamization, 11th to 15th Centuries, in preparation.

[g. t. dennis/eds.]