Religious freedom commission urges State Department to add Turkey to ‘special watch list’

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is urging the State Department to add Turkey to its “Special Watch List” due to “severe violations of religious freedom.”

The Feb. 26 recommendation, which USCIRF also made in 2025, follows moves by the European Parliament and European Court of Human Rights in the past month to censure Turkey over its targeting of Christians.

The European Parliament adopted a resolution on Feb. 12 strongly condemning Turkey’s expulsion of Christian missionaries under what lawmakers described as opaque “national security” pretexts. The resolution urges the capital city of Ankara to respect freedom of religion and allow those affected to return.

The European Parliament said “in recent years, at least 300 foreign Christian pastors, missionaries, and their family members have been deported from Türkiye and denied reentry” and that the country has justified doing so by designating them “as national security threats without evidence, trial, or effective means of appeal.”

The European Court of Human Rights also pressed Turkey over the expulsions in January.

USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler said in a statement: “The U.S. administration should maintain the momentum President [Donald] Trump made in his September meeting with President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan and push for tangible improvements to Turkey’s religious freedom record, including an end to its repressive tactics against Christians.”

“Turkey’s arbitrary labeling of foreign-born Protestant Christians as national security threats is meant to intimidate the Christian community and prevent them from gathering for worship. Everyone, regardless of residency status, has the right to freedom of religion or belief under international law,” she said.

The USCIRF said many of Turkey’s laws place restrictions on religious freedom for non-Muslim minorities and secular groups, including preventing Christian clergy from being trained in the country, obstructing houses of worship from registration, and the refusal “to grant legal personality and full autonomy to religious communities.”

“We welcome steps European bodies have taken to hold Turkey accountable for its systematic violations of religious freedom,” said USCIRF Vice Chair Asif Mahmood in a statement. “We urge the U.S. government to prioritize freedom of religion or belief as part of its bilateral relations with Turkey and raise with Turkish government officials the obstacles to religious minorities’ access to houses of worship and clergy, such as barriers to continued legal residency and restrictions on clerical institutions including the Theological School of Halki.”

The Theological School of Halki is a Greek Orthodox seminary located on an island near the coast of Istanbul that has been closed since 1971 “despite occasional promises by the Turkish authorities,” according to the website of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople (Istanbul).

The 2026 USCIRF annual report is set to be released on March 4.