US embassy cable - 05ANKARA2097

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 ANKARA 002097 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPARTMENT FOR EUR/SE 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/12/2015 
TAGS: PGOV, PREL, PHUM, TU, OSCE 
SUBJECT: RELIGIOUS (UN)FREEDOM IN TURKEY: LONG-RESIDENT 
PASTOR GIVEN 15 DAYS TO DEPART COUNTRY 
 
REF: A. ANKARA 2061 
     B. ANKARA 1935 
     C. ANKARA 1511 
     D. ANKARA 814 
 
Classified by Polcouns John Kunstadter; reasons 1.4 b and d. 
 
1. (U) Summary: Authorities have given a long-resident Amcit 
Protestant pastor 15 days to depart Turkey because he does 
not have a work or residence permit.  The pastor has been 
performing missionary work in Turkey for 20 years, and 
departs the country every three months to renew his tourist 
visa.  It is not clear whether immigration officials will 
allow him to return this time.  The pastor is engaged in a 
series of court battles to win legal status for his Ankara 
church.  His expulsion order comes amid a broad GOT campaign 
against missionaries.  He fears the small church may not 
survive if he is unable to return for an extended period. 
End Summary. 
 
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Police Give Pastor 15 Days to Depart 
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2. (U) Daniel Wickwire, pastor of the Batikent Protestant 
Church in Ankara, called the Embassy April 12 to tell us that 
police last week notified him he would have to leave Turkey 
in 15 days because he does not have a residence or work 
permit.  An American who has been performing missionary work 
in Turkey for the past 20 years, he is officially a tourist. 
Every three months he has to leave the country to renew his 
tourist visa.  He had already planned to travel to the Greek 
islands on April 20, the date his 15-day deadline ends, for 
his routine departure.  Now, however, he does not know 
whether he will be allowed back in.  The police ordered him 
to depart, but did not say anything about whether he can 
return. 
 
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Pastor Has Long Fought for Legal Status 
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3. (U) Wickwire has been fighting a series of court battles 
for the past two and a half years with the goal of forcing 
the Turkish bureaucracy to accept his church as a legal place 
of worship.  His story provides insight into how missionaries 
operate in Turkey, and how the State utilizes laws and 
regulations to discourage Christian religious activity. 
 
4. (C) Like many missionaries in Turkey, Wickwire started out 
as a high school teacher.  He says he was fired from a 
position at Ataturk Lisesi when school officials discovered 
he was proselytizing at home on his own time -- he claims 
they falsely accused him of proselytizing on the job.  He 
later ran an unauthorized church out of his home for 10 years 
before opening the Batikent church in August 2002.  Along the 
way, he studied Islamic theology at Ankara University 
 
5. (U) Wickwire now runs what Protestants in Turkey refer to 
as the "most legal" church in the country.  Unlike other 
Protestant pastors, he refuses to register his church as a 
religious/charity association or otherwise conform to the 
vagaries of Turkish law regarding places of worship.  As far 
as he is concerned, the Turkish Constitution guarantees 
religious freedom, and he intends to hold the Turkish 
government to that standard. 
 
6. (U) He has had considerable success in court -- in a 
series of precedent-setting rulings, courts have supported 
his right to register his place of worship as a "church." 
The Interior Ministry appealed the latest ruling to the 
Danistay (the administrative high appeals court, which has a 
reputation for ruling against foreign companies), which is 
expected to issue a final decision on the case this year.  In 
a separate case, the Danistay last month ruled that the 
Batikent church is entitled to free water, just as mosques 
are, a decision Wickwire views as a good omen for the broader 
case on the church's status. 
 
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Church Survival Could Be At Risk 
-------------------------------- 
 
7. (U) He fears, however, that all his legal success might 
come to nothing if immigration authorities bar him from 
re-entry on his return from Greece.  Wickwire said local 
residents have been pressuring his once-supportive landlord 
to evict him from the church (he rents the property because 
he lacks the legal resident status required to buy real 
estate).  When his lease ends in July, he will have to find a 
new location for the church. 
 
8. (C) The Batikent church is a small operation.  Wickwire 
employs a secretary and a groundskeeper.  On an average 
Sunday he draws about 30-40 worshippers, mostly Turks with a 
few foreigners mixed in.  He said the church distributes 
50-100 bibles and other religious books a day and converts 
one or two people a week.  Church members also conduct 
charitable activity, such as giving away free medicine.  His 
home church in Los Angeles pays his salary, and he collects 
tithes from members and the occasional donation from groups 
of Christians visiting from other countries.  Altogether, he 
is just barely raising the USD 2,000 per month needed to keep 
the church going. 
 
9. (U) Wickwire said police two years ago gave his wife a 
similar order to depart the country.  While she was in the 
U.S., church lawyers successfully challenged the order, and 
she was back in Turkey in a matter of weeks.  He is confident 
he could also fight his way back in through the courts if he 
is barred from returning.  But he's afraid the church might 
not survive if he is kept out of the country for too long, 
particularly if he does not return before the lease expires. 
 
10. (U) He said it is always difficult to predict how 
authorities will react.  Many foreigners in Turkey can 
routinely extend tourist visas for six months at a time, or 
even up to a year or more, without leaving the country.  But 
Wickwire said police have openly told him he cannot receive 
more than a 3-month visa because he is a missionary.  Labor 
Ministry officials, meanwhile, have told him they cannot 
issue him a work permit for the same reason. 
 
11. (C) Past practice indicates authorities may not keep him 
out of the country for long, if at all.  But it is possible 
that Wickwire's court victories have heightened the concerns 
of a security and religious establishment that views 
missionaries as a threat to national unity and identity.  It 
is also possible the GOT has decided to crack down on 
Batikent church as part of its broader anti-missionary 
campaign (reftels).  Wickwire said the campaign has "turned 
up the heat" on missionaries.  Protestants say authorities 
have recently become more stingy about issuing visas to 
missionaries or Christians they suspect of being 
missionaries.  We have also been told by an American woman 
(with no missionary background) married to a Turkish 
businessman that, for the first time in 17 years of residence 
in Turkey, she faces an unexplained delay in renewal of her 
residence permit. 
 
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Comment 
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12. (C) The pattern of court victories followed by 
bureaucratic harassment in this case illustrates the problems 
faced by Protestants and other religious minorities in 
Turkey.  The Constitution guarantees religious freedom, and 
the law does not prohibit opening churches or proselytizing. 
But it is virtually impossible to register officially a 
church without calling it an "association."  Association 
status involves onerous reporting requirements and Interior 
Ministry  monitoring.  A few Protestant churches have pursued 
the association option, made possible by recent legal 
reforms.  Church members note, however, that the law does not 
explicitly authorize associations to conduct religious 
services.  They have told us they fear that on any given 
Sunday police could raid their services and arrest them for 
conducting illegal activities.  This is precisely the 
situation Wickwire has been striving to avoid.  Now his fate 
rests on whether immigration officials allow him to return 
and continue his efforts. 
 
 
EDELMAN