Turkish Policies Vis-À-Vis Christians: From Exclusion to Inclusion to Exclusion Again
Turkish Policies Vis-À-Vis Christians: From Exclusion to Inclusion to Exclusion Again

Author(s): Nikos Christofis
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Islam studies, Politics and religion, Ethnic Minorities Studies, Sociology of Religion
Published by: Transnational Press London
Keywords: Turkish Policies; Christians; Exclusion; Turkey; non-Muslim; Ottoman Empire; multi-cultural; multi-religious; multi-ethnic; ethnic backgrounds;
Summary/Abstract: The Republic of Turkey, as a direct heir of the Ottoman Empire, inherited the empire’s multi-cultural, multi-religious, and multi-ethnic diversity. As a result, entering into modernity, Turkey itself is composed of several peoples with different ethnic backgrounds, among which a Christian community. Christians, once an essential composite of the Ottoman administration, is now a very small percentage of the total population, with its vast majority now living in Istanbul itself. With the fall of Istanbul in 1453, the proportion of the non-Muslim population in the Ottoman Empire reached 60 per cent overnight. This made it impossible for the Ottomans to rule over many different peoples through a legal system based on sharia. The millet system “set in motion the development of an order that involved autonomy and decentralisation for non-Muslim groups but within religious hierarchy”.

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