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Christians of the Middle East
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Turkey

تركيا

Constantinople, Tur Abdin and Antioch

The great ecumenical councils met on the land of modern Turkey. It holds Constantinople, seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate; Antioch, where the disciples were first called Christians; and Tur Abdin, the heartland of the Syriac world. A century ago Christians were a fifth of Anatolia's population; today only small communities remain.

Christian population

About 100,000–170,000

Estimates; Christians were some 20–25% of Anatolia's population in 1914, reduced to under 0.2% by the genocides, the population exchange and emigration.

Languages of liturgy and life

Greek among the Rum, Syriac and Turoyo in Tur Abdin, Armenian in Istanbul, alongside Turkish — and Arabic among the Orthodox of Antakya and İskenderun.

Churches and denominations

  • Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople

    البطريركية المسكونية في القسطنطينية

    First in honour among the Orthodox churches, seated at the Phanar in Istanbul — though its local flock now numbers only a few thousand.

  • Armenian Patriarchate of Constantinople

    البطريركية الأرمنية في إستنبول

    The largest Christian community in Turkey today, with churches, schools and a hospital in Istanbul.

  • Syriac Orthodox Church

    الكنيسة السريانية الأرثوذكسية

    Tur Abdin is its historic heartland, with monasteries that have not ceased working since the fourth century.

  • Antiochian Greek Orthodox

    الروم الأرثوذكس في أنطاكية

    An Arabic-speaking community in Antakya and İskenderun, under the Patriarchate of Antioch — whose seat is now in Damascus.

  • Chaldean & Syriac Catholic

    الكلدان والسريان الكاثوليك

    Small communities in Istanbul, Diyarbakır and Mardin.

  • Latin and Protestant

    اللاتين والإنجيليون

    Small parishes, mostly serving foreign residents and migrants.

Historical milestones

  1. c. 47–57 AD

    Paul's journeys in Asia Minor, and the rise of the churches at Ephesus, Galatia and Colossae that his letters address.

  2. 325

    The Council of Nicaea at İznik: the first ecumenical council, where the creed was framed.

  3. 381, 431 and 451

    The councils of Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon (Kadıköy) — three of the most consequential councils, all on Anatolian soil.

  4. 4th century

    The three Cappadocian Fathers — Basil the Great, Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa — and the founding of Mor Gabriel monastery in 397.

  5. 537

    Hagia Sophia is consecrated, and remains the largest church in Christendom for close to a thousand years.

  6. 1054

    The Great Schism between Rome and Constantinople, the dividing line between Catholicism and Orthodoxy.

  7. 1453

    The conquest of Constantinople; the Ecumenical Patriarchate continues in the city under the millet system.

  8. 1915–1923

    The Armenian genocide, the Syriac Sayfo and the massacres of Greeks: the end of the Christian presence across most of Anatolia.

  9. 1923

    The population exchange between Turkey and Greece moves hundreds of thousands of Greek Orthodox to Greece.

  10. 1955

    The Istanbul pogrom against the Rum, and the emigration that followed, emptying the city's oldest community.

  11. 1971

    The Halki theological seminary, which trained the Orthodox clergy, is closed — and remains closed.

Places and heritage sites

A nineteenth-century lithograph of the interior of Hagia Sophia, showing the dome and galleries.
Image: Gaspare Fossati (artist, 1809-1883) Louis Haghe (lithographer, 1806-1885) Adam Cuerden (restoration) · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

Hagia Sophia

آيا صوفيا

Istanbul

The cathedral of Holy Wisdom, and the largest church in Christendom from 537 to 1453.

The Phanar

الفنار

Istanbul

Seat of the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Church of St. George.

Mor Gabriel Monastery in Tur Abdin, its stone buildings on open ground.
Image: Photographer: Christian Koehn (Fragwürdig), selfmade · CC BY-SA 2.0 de · via Wikimedia Commons

Mor Gabriel Monastery

دير مار جبرائيل

Tur Abdin

Founded in 397, and reckoned among the oldest working monasteries in the world.

Deyrulzafaran (Mor Hananyo)

دير الزعفران (مار حنانيا)

Mardin

Seat of the Syriac Orthodox patriarchate for centuries, until it moved to Damascus.

The Church of St Peter at Antakya: a stone façade set against a cliff face, with three arched recesses pierced by star-shaped openings, a central arched doorway with a visitor entering, and a paved forecourt in front.
Image: Volkan Hatem · CC BY 2.5 · via Wikimedia Commons

Antioch (Antakya)

أنطاكية

Hatay

The city where the disciples were first called Christians; home to the Church of St. Peter, cut into the mountainside.

The entrance to a rock-cut church in Cappadocia: a narrow arched doorway carved into pale tufa, with surviving red-ochre decoration above it — a band of rectangles and a cross in a circle — and a carved blind arch to its left.
Image: José Luiz · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Cappadocia

كبادوكيا

Nevşehir

Rock-cut churches and monastic dwellings with their wall paintings, on the UNESCO list.

The ruins of the Basilica of St John at Ephesus: brick and stone walls, standing columns and arched openings, an information board, grassy ground, and the walls of a fortress on the hill behind.
Image: Bernard Gagnon · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Ephesus

أفسس

İzmir

One of Paul's churches, the site of the Council of 431, and by tradition the house of Mary.

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References

General further reading, not citations to specific pages.

Further reading

  • Aziz S. Atiya. A History of Eastern Christianity. Methuen, 1968
  • Sebastian P. Brock. An Introduction to Syriac Studies. Gorgias Press, 2006
  • Jean-Pierre Valognes. Vie et mort des chrétiens d'Orient. Fayard, 1994
  • Anthony O'Mahony and Emma Loosley (eds.). Eastern Christianity in the Modern Middle East. Routledge, 2010
  • UNESCO World Heritage Centre. UNESCO World Heritage List. whc.unesco.org
  • Pew Research Center. Religious composition reports for the Middle East and North Africa. www.pewresearch.org