It's been said that Turkey has taken in about half of all of the Syrians who have fled to Turkey due to the civil war. As of last year, Turkey has received a total of 1.9 million refugees. Turkey is typically the first choice of Syrian families who feel that they must flee because it is right on Syria's border. But for the 45,000 Syrian Christians who have reportedly chosen Turkey, life is only slightly better at best.
About 14 percent of the Syrian refugees are now staying in camps because Turkey really doesn't have anywhere else to put the constant waves that keep pouring across the border. And of those who do make the courageous journey, if they are Christians, they find that they must pretend to be Muslims in public in order to avoid being attacked. They limit their worship of Jesus to the privacy of their homes. Even as they attempt to survive in Turkey, many have also attempted to apply to be accepted as refugees in other countries while they await a response.
Many of the families who flee to Turkey can't enroll their children in school because the children don't speak Turkish. Fathers who attempt to get work are often only able to get very low paying positions at best. One refugee going by the name of Linda said that her husband, who is an electrician, has only been able to get temporary jobs at construction sites. His pay is $25 Turkish liras, which is the equivalent of about $8.28 per day.
Linda also said, "When ISIL militants raided our house in Baghdad last year, my daughter Nuşik was seven. She stopped talking on that day and has never spoken again since then. We are now living in Yozgat. We are working hard to provide her treatment, but she still won't speak. We do not have a future here. Everything in our lives is uncertain. Our only wish is to provide a better future for our children in a place where they are safe and secure."
Another group of refugees in Turkey that has been attacked are the Armenians. Zadig Kucuk reportedly found his 85-year-old mother murdered in December 2012 even as she was living in a large Armenian community in Istanbul. When her body was found, there was also a large cross that had been carved into her chest. There have also been incidences of refugees who were beheaded.
With the persecution of Christians in places such as Turkey on the rise, there has been a significant reduction in the Christian population in those areas. For example, Turkey's Christian population has gone from 20 percent down to .2 percent within the past 100 years. Interestingly, it has been a member of NATO for about 64 years this year.
Turkey was the original capital of the Holy Roman Empire until the Ottoman's attacked and defeated it in 1453. It has been a primarily Muslim nation ever since
