Turkey is a country that is mostly located in Asia, but with a large part of its capitol city, Istanbul, in Europe. Indeed, if you’re staying in Istanbul people will often ask you where—on the Asian or European side? Or if you are leaving for an airport, the one on the Asia or the European side—as there are two major airports. 

The Turks invaded the Byzantine Empire in the 11^th Century. The Byzantine Empire was what was left over of the Roman Empire once the city of Rome had been conquered by Goths (476) and the conquering king did not desire to become a Cesar, but the King of Rome. The western part of the empire started to disintegrate, but the eastern portion, with its capitol in Byzantium, also called Constantinople, continued to think of itself as the Roman Empire; Western historians today call it be the name of the town which would become its capitol. 

The city of Constantinople was conquered by the Turks (who had originally come from central Asia) in the year 1453, under Sultan Mehmet II. (Mehmet is a Turkish variation of Muhammad.) This marked the real end of the Roman Empire, which had been founded in 27 BC. The Ottoman Empire became a significant regional power, controlling much of North Africa, portions of Europe, and the Middle East. 

It is because of this long heritage of Christian presence that Turkey is an irony. The country has many famous Christian places, but very few actual Christians. The churches of Asia Minor that John wrote to in Revelation are all in Turkey, but they are mostly archeological sites. Most Christians were forced to leave Turkey and relocate to Greece following the Greco-Turkish war of 1919–1922. 

The indigenous population of Christians in Turkey was mostly Armenian, but most of them were killed during the Armenian Genocide (1915–1917). The Ottoman Empire was on the losing side of World War I (1914–1918), and afterwards it was divided into many countries, including the modern Near East. The reformist vision of Kemal Ataturk and the ‘Young Turks’ who were nationalists and secular, become the dominant political and social goal. The Islamic caliphate was abolished in 1924; the country abandoned the modified Arabic alphabet and adopted a modified Latin alphabet for writing. A precarious balance of nationalism, Islamism, and secularism perdured, and perdures, until this day. 

For most Turks, “To be Turkish is to be Muslim.” You can be secular Muslim who never goes to mosque and drinks beer and sleeps around. But still, you need to be a Muslim. Many Turks see conversion to Christianity as leaving the Turkish people. This is fairly close to how many Jews today see embracing Jesus Christ as Son of God, as leaving the ethnic group of the Jewish people. 

Fortunately, Turks are free—with a lot of work and patience—to officially change their religion from Islam to Christianity. Also, the Protestant churches in Turkey have grown from a few dozen Turkish converts in the 1960s to about 12,000 today. Most of them are evangelical and/or charismatic, but a significant number have joined the historic churches of Asia Minor (Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic, Greek Catholic, Roman Catholic). 

If you have Turkish friends here are some topics you can ask about:

1.        Why are there so many famous Christian places there, and so few Christians?

2.        I understand many Turks have some Christian ancestors, do you? Tell me about them.

3.        If you ask Allah to forgive you, are you sure he will?

4.        If you go to mosque, could you face Istanbul instead of Mecca during your prayers? Why or why not?

The questions are not to be asked with an antagonistic spirit, but to help people to start thinking about history and, ultimately, our relationship with God. 

And some demographics to conclude: Turkey has about 85 million people (similar to Germany or Iran). The population is, technically, 99% Muslim. There is a large minority population of Kurds (15–20%), and some of them want their own country. About 76% of the population is urban. Other than Turks and Kurds there are a number of very small ethnic minorities: Arabs in the south, Circassians, Assyrians, Armenians, and Greeks. The largest city by far is Istanbul (population 15 million), but the capitol is in the center of the country: Ankara, population 5.5 million. Turkish cuisine is found throughout the world and Turkish author Orhan Pamuk won the Noel Prize in Literature (2006).