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Displaying results 1 - 12 of 12
Feb 4, 2021
As the Biden administration begins to formulate its broader human rights policy, USCIRF highlights several priority countries when it comes to international religious freedom. Condemning and preventing…
Feb 18, 2021
In recent years, northern Iraq has become a battleground for Turkish armed forces and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). In June 2020, Turkey escalated their attacks in the region, announcing military…
Apr 30, 2021
The program to resettle refugees to the United States has existed since 1980, with strong bipartisan support. Earlier this month, President Biden signed an emergency declaration to speed up refugee admissions into…
May 20, 2021
It’s been 50 years since the Turkish government closed the Greek Orthodox Theological School of Halki, also known as the Halki Seminary. The school continues to be unable to educate or train clergy in a country…
Jul 2, 2021
On July 2, 1993 a mob set fire to the Madimak Hotel in Sivas, Turkey—where a group of prominent Alevi writers, poets, and thinkers had gathered. Reports show 37 people died in what became known as the Sivas (or…
Dec 10, 2021
Religious freedom conditions in Turkey continue to follow a disappointing, negative trajectory. The Hagia Sophia conversion, the continued closure of the Halki Seminary, government meddling in the internal affairs…
Feb 25, 2022
Many of the religious communities that call Iraq home have suffered from conflict and displacement in recent decades. The civil war in Iraq in the 2000s led large numbers of Christians and other small religious…
Jul 7, 2022
This past spring, USCIRF staff traveled to Turkey and met with religious and nonbelief communities across the country. Numerous issues continue to negatively impact their freedom of religion or belief, including an…
Nov 4, 2022
Since 2014, when ISIS launched its genocidal campaign against the Yazidis—a minority ethno-religious group within the Kurdish-majority areas of Iraq, Syria, Iran and Turkey, as well as in Armenia–hundreds of…
Nov 25, 2022
Alevis constitute the largest religious minority in Turkey and have faced persistent obstacles to the exercise of their religious freedom. In October 2022, the Turkish government announced its plan to create a new state-run Alevi institution—…
Aug 2, 2024
Ten years ago, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched a campaign of mass atrocities to achieve the religious and ethnic cleansing of Yazidis, Assyrian-Chaldean-Syriac Christians, Shi’a and Sunni Muslim Turkmens,…
Aug 9, 2024
Ten years ago, the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) launched a campaign of mass atrocities to achieve the religious and ethnic cleansing of religious minority groups in Iraq and Syria. In 2016, the U.S. State Department…