A lobbying campaign targeting the United States Department of State over Washington’s stance toward Turkey on religious freedom issues has been launched by the Hellenic American Leadership Council (HALC), calling on US diplomacy to adopt the recommendations of the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) and impose conditions on bilateral cooperation with Ankara.
According to the campaign, a key demand is for Turkey to be placed on the State Department’s Special Watch List, as again recommended by USCIRF in its latest annual report, citing “systematic and ongoing serious violations of religious freedom.”
HALC’s initiative includes a public petition campaign aimed at urging the State Department to adopt a tougher stance toward Ankara and to link any future US security assistance to Turkey with measurable commitments to improve religious freedom conditions.
USCIRF report on Turkey
The USCIRF report highlights restrictions on the legal recognition of places of worship, interference in religious expression, obstacles to clergy operations, and the deportation of foreign Christian clerics on what it describes as pretextual grounds. It also notes a lack of progress on commitments such as reopening the Halki Theological School, considered vital for the continued function of the Ecumenical Patriarchate.
The report further refers to policies regarding religious monuments, pointing to the conversion of Hagia Sophia and the Chora Monastery from museums into mosques as symbolic decisions with broader implications.
Pressure for conditional cooperation
HALC is calling for any future security cooperation between the United States and Turkey to be tied to measurable improvements in religious freedom. It argues that the deterioration of conditions over the past decade in a NATO member state makes increased pressure on Ankara necessary to ensure alignment with international law.
In this context, the organization warns that a softer US stance could be interpreted as tolerance, sending a negative signal to religious minorities both within Turkey and across the Middle East at a time of heightened uncertainty.
Source: ANMA
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