A 1998 graduate of Westminster Seminary in California, Turkish-born Fikret Böcek moved back to his country in 2001 to plant a confessional Reformed church in Izmir – the ancient Smyrna, the persecuted city of Revelation 2:8-11, where bishop Polycarp famously died for his faith. From the start, Böcek aimed to make his church completely visible and open to all. He knew the risks. He had already been arrested soon after his conversion to Christianity in 1987.[1]
If it’s true, as the ancient Tertullian said, that “the blood of martyrs is the seed of the church,” much seed has been sown on Turkish soil, from the 2nd-century martyrdom of Polycarp to the massacre of Christian Armenians in 1915 (where 1.5 million Armenians lost their lives). And these are only the most notorious cases. In Turkey, persecution against Christians has spanned centuries, perpetrated first by the Romans and then by the Muslims. In fact, it’s still happening today. In every case, the justification is political: Christians are enemies of the state.
A Turkish Pastor Under Fire
A 1998 graduate of Westminster Seminary in California, Turkish-born Fikret Böcek moved back to his country in 2001 to plant a confessional Reformed church in Izmir – the ancient Smyrna, the persecuted city of Revelation 2:8-11, where bishop Polycarp famously died for his faith.
From the start, Böcek aimed to make his church completely visible and open to all. He knew the risks. He had already been arrested soon after his conversion to Christianity in 1987.[1]
Evangelizing Turkey is also a difficult task. “Conversions of Muslims to Christianity have been historically rare here,” he recently told me. He remembers one man converting in 1960, his son in 1970, and about 25 more Muslims between 1970 and 1980. The numbers increased to 80 people between 1980 and 1988, still a drop in a bucket in a country of 52 million people (79.5 million today).
Convinced of the power of the gospel, Böcek has persevered in spite of the difficulties, preaching, meeting people, distributing Bibles, and translating. He even started a translation of the Bible from the original languages, to replace the current Turkish Bible which is a paraphrased version. Today, his church (Izmir Protestan Kilisesi) includes 153 Muslim converts, an impressive number in less than ten years. He has also helped other pastors to establish churches.
So far, Böcek has only undergone short-term arrests, but is now is facing the strong possibility of a long-term imprisonment. The Turkish government, in fact, has linked him to Andrew Brunson, the evangelical pastor from North Carolina who is currently in a Turkish prison under charges of plotting with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).
The Accusations
The official Indictment against Brunson mentions a connection between some American churches and the Turkish scholar Fethullah Gülen, who lives in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania. The Turkish government considers Gülen the mastermind behind the 2016 failed coup against Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdoğan.
According to the official Indictment against Brunson, Böcek has been in touch with the US pastor, sharing the same hotel conference hall to meet converts, and selling him a church building. Böcek, however, calls these points of contact unplanned. It’s not unusual for pastors to use the same facilities for meetings.
As for the church building, Böcek rented it for three years, until he was able to purchase another in a better location. A year later, Brunson rented the first building from its owner.
The Indictment builds on these fortuitous connections by accusing Böcek (“certainly a person connected with the CIA”) of passing on “his intelligence mission” to Brunson, adding that it was Böcek who invited Brunson to Turkey.
The prosecution draws its evidence from the testimonies of anonymous witnesses – frequently prisoners who, according to Böcek, are glad to give false testimony in exchange for a favorable treatment. There are no favorable witnesses, Böcek explained, because all Christians are considered suspects and disqualified from testifying.
Some evidence is found in the Bible, particularly the Book of Revelation, with its mention of Armageddon and an antichrist “king of the north.” Since Turkey is north of Israel, the Turkish government concluded that Christians have been targeting their country, especially since a few Protestants have posted pictures of Erdoğan with the caption, “Antichrist has come.”