Christianity in Turkey

Asia

Bangladesh • Bhutan •
Brunei • Burma • Cambodia •
China • Hong Kong • India •
Indonesia • Japan • Kazakhstan •
Korea • Laos • Malaysia •
Maldives • Mongolia • Nepal • North Korea • Pakistan •
Philippines • Russia • Singapore •
South Korea • Sri Lanka • Taiwan •
Tajikistan • Thailand • Turkmenistan •
Uzbekistan • Vietnam

Europe

Albania • Armenia • Austria •
Azerbaijan • Belarus • Belgium •
Bosnia & Herzegovina • Bulgaria •
Cyprus • Denmark • Finland •
France • Georgia •
Germany • Greece •
Iceland • Ireland • Italy •
Jersey • Kosovo • Lithuania •
Luxembourg • Macedonia • Netherlands •
Norway • Malta • Moldova •
Montenegro • Poland • Portugal • Romania •
Russia • Serbia • Turkey • Ukraine • United Kingdom

North America

Antigua & Barbuda • Barbados
Belize • Canada • Costa Rica • Cuba
Dominica • Dominican Republic •
El Salvador • Grenada
Guatemala • Haiti • Honduras
Jamaica • Mexico • Nicaragua •
Panama • Trinidad and Tobago
United States

South America

Brazil • Chile • Colombia •
Ecuador • Guyana • Paraguay • Peru

Middle East

Afghanistan • Bahrain •
Iran • Iraq • Israel •
Jordan • Kuwait •
Lebanon • Oman • Qatar •
Saudi Arabia • Syria •
United Arab Emirates • Yemen

Oceania

Australia • East Timor • Fiji •
Kiribati • Marshall Islands • Micronesia •
Nauru • New Zealand •
Palau • Papua New Guinea Samoa •
Tonga • Tuvalu • Vanuatu •

Full list •

Christianity has a long history in Anatolia (now part of the Republic of Turkey), which is the birthplace of numerous Christian Apostles and Saints, such as Paul of Tarsus, Timothy, Nicholas of Myra, Polycarp of Smyrna and many others.

Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancient Pentarchy are in Turkey: Constantinople (Istanbul) and Antioch (Antakya). Antioch was also the place where the followers of Jesus were called "Christians" for the first time in history, as well as being the site of one of the earliest and oldest surviving churches, established by Saint Peter himself. For a thousand years, the Hagia Sophia was the largest church in the world.

Turkey is also home to the Seven Churches of Asia, where the Revelations to John were sent. Apostle John is reputed to have taken Virgin Mary to Ephesus in western Turkey, where she spent the last days of her life in a small house, known as the House of the Virgin Mary, which still survives today and has been recognized as a holy site for pilgrimage by the Catholic and Orthodox churches, as well as being a Muslim shrine. The cave of the Seven Sleepers is also located in Ephesus.

All of the first seven Ecumenical Councils which are recognized by both the Western and Eastern churches were held in present-day Turkey. Of these, the Nicene Creed, declared with the First Council of Nicaea (İznik) in 325, is of utmost importance and has provided the essential definitions of present-day Christianity.

Today the Christian population of Turkey includes an estimated 45,000 Armenian Apostolic, 17,000 Assyrian- Syriac Orthodox, 8,000 Assyrians of the Chaldean Catholic, 3,000-4,000 Greek Orthodox, and smaller numbers of Bulgarians, Georgians, and Protestants.

Famous quotes containing the words christianity and/or turkey:

    There is the Christianity of tenderness. But ... it is utterly pushed aside by the Christianity of self-glorification: the self-glorification of the humble.
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.... There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanut butter, and drum majorettes.
    Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)