Focus Nations:Turkey

Prayer:
Please pray that the government not cave under the pressure from the Muslims fundamentalists, pray that prejudice against Christianity left over from the crusades be overcome and forgotten, that the attitude that to be a true Turk is to be a Muslim will also be forgotten. Please pray for workers to go into that harvest field where so many are disaffected by Islam and are searching for Truth. Please pray about whether or not you are the answer to that prayer.

Geography:
Straddling Europe and Asia, Turkey serves as a crossroads between the continents and controls the vital waterways between the Black and Mediterranean Seas

Ethnicity:
Majority Turks have been pressuring the minority Kurds, Arabs and others to adopt the Turkish language and culture. The predominant language is Turkish with a total of 36 languages spoken.

History:
Once the center of Christianity, Turkey has been an Islamic nation since before the Crusades of 1000’s-1200’s AD. The Ottoman Empire was an Islamic empire lasting until Turkey’s entry into World War I. Occupied by foreign forces until Mustafa Kemal Ataturk expels those forces as well as the last vestiges of the Ottoman Empire. Ataturk establishes the Turkish Republic in 1923. Ataturks reforms, such as the abolition of the fez and the veil, as well as the adoption of surnames have continued to this day.

Government:
A secular multi- party democracy that is currently under pressure by Islamic fundamentalists on one side, and by those who favor entry into the European Union on the other.

The Need:
There is a great need at this time to get Bibles and teaching materials into the hands of the small but vigorous Turkish Church. The Turkish church has fewer that 2000 members. There is also a need for foreign workers to go to Turkey to evangelize and disciple the Turks.