Turkish Christian Ender Peker is used to facing hostility from religious Muslims, particularly because he lives in Turkey’s conservative southeast. So he was shocked in the autumn of 2014 when an imam asked him to take over food distribution at a nearby refugee camp.
The refugees were Iraqi Yezidis. As a monotheistic religion that includes elements of ancient Iranian religions, Christianity and Islam, Yezidis are so unorthodox that most Muslims have traditionally derided them as ‘devil worshippers’. This meant that when, along with other Iraqis fleeing Islamic State attacks, traumatised Yezidis escaped to Turkey in their thousands last summer, they were afraid to live among Iraqi Muslims in refugee camps set up by the Turkish national government.
Church helps local government
So the Diyarbakir Protestant Church stepped in, helping the local government to establish the first Yezidi refugee camp in a former airplane hangar in August 2014.
This opportunity was an unexpected one for such a small Turkish church with only 65 members, but it began a process of reconciliation between the tiny Protestant community and local authorities who had been mistrustful and even hostile of it in the recent past.
‘They thought we would come to offer aid, but then leave just as quickly. We stayed. They complimented us, that we did what we said we would do’, Peker said.
Peker is one of a group of foreign and Turkish Christians providing substantial ongoing aid to Yezidis. Nearly all their relief efforts are channelled through Diyarbakir Protestant Church, a hub for evangelical Christianity in the region. Led by Pastor Ahmet Guvener, the church has helped raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from Turkish and foreign churches to help refugees.
Yezidis initially rebuffed help from government workers in Turkey, due to their lingering trauma from Islamic State attacks.
The Turkish Christians had problems when they first approached the Yezidis, who barely spoke to any government relief worker beyond the necessary minimum.
‘When other church members and I were helping Yezidis in the camp first set up the large tents, they did not speak with us’, said Guvener. ‘But when they told them that we were non-Muslims, they immediately opened up. They embraced us, smiled, and could even joke.’
Improving relations
The Diyarbakir church continues to serve the 30,000 Yezidis who have settled in south-eastern Turkey. It has also been able to provide food, clothes, shelter, house utilities and other forms of aid to Kurdish Muslim families who fled the Syrian city of Kobani.
Through these relief efforts, doors have opened for church members to improve their relations with officials in the region. Local government leaders told them they are ‘deeply grateful’ for the help of the church.
The mayors of nearby Kocaköy and Silvan began to work closely with the Christian community. A foreign group of Christians was allowed to teach English lessons in Kocaköy’s state-run high school and even talk about their faith, an act rarely tolerated in Turkey. The mayors have even made several courtesy visits to the Diyarbakir church.
‘God never causes evil to happen, but he can do wonderful things by using the church in difficult situations’, Guvener said. ‘In the last eight months, the attitudes that people have about Christians have changed completely.’
Tons of food
From last August to January this year, the Diyarbakir church has delivered literally tons of food to refugees, including over 30,000 kilograms of rice, lentils, dried beans, and vegetables. They have also provided thousands of clothing articles for men, women and children. Church members also visit camps near the village of Suruç, near the Syrian border. More than 120,000 refugees live in this region alone.
