Middle Eastern Christians

Turkey’s geopolitical position has become precarious since the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A look at the history of Iran-Russia relations demonstrates the same pattern of Russian regimes exploiting Iranian resources. Most evidently, tsarist Russia obstructed the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906–07, and the Soviet Union attempted to create a satellite state in the Azerbaijan province of Iran.

The crime of cultural heritage destruction has been committed against the same victims by the same perpetrators again and again—in Turkey, Cyprus, the South Caucuses, and the Middle East.

“We have lost everything; our homes have been stolen, looted, destroyed, and burned. There is nothing left for us there, to return for,” said an Iraqi Christian who fled to Jordan.

The manger scene these days really is the face of Christmas for most people and, perhaps not surprisingly, it is one of the aspects of the season that keeps causing trouble.

That Jesus Christ’s two advents are set against the backdrop of a region rarely associated with good news is ironic, but this year that irony is less obvious. Good things are happening in the Near East if you know where to look.

The success of Prime Minister Najib Mikati in forming a government, where his predecessor-designate Saad Hariri had failed after trying for months to craft a political deal with Hezbollah, marks a clear tilt toward Damascus.

One adjective that should never be used to describe the US retreat from Afghanistan is “surprising.” In fact, what happened in Kabul in 2021 was the natural next step on the inward-turning path Americans began walking in 2009.

It is time for the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and the global religious freedom advocacy community to highlight the egregious religious freedom violations that result from Turkey’s restrictions on using the Kurdish language as part of religious services.