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Several weeks before the attack, an e-mail message had been sent to the pastor of the church's Turkish congregation. "It is our Islamic duty to see you are killed," the message warned. "The place you call a church will be wrapped around your heads."

The following week, the U.S. Embassy in Ankara issued a warning regarding the attack, which noted an "up tick in threats and vandalism … occurring during a period of increased focus by the Turkish media and government on missionary activity in Turkey."

Perhaps the most life-threatening attempt against the Protestant community occurred last November in Gaziantep, the second-largest city in southeastern Turkey.

Three young men allegedly "seeking spiritual truth" went into the Gaziantep office of Wilbur Miller armed with a concealed gun and knife. An American, Miller and his family were part of a mixed Turkish-expatriate congregation meeting in the city since 1999.

After wrestling Miller to the floor, the three youths bound, gagged, and blindfolded him, declaring they had been given orders by AlQaeda to "put him away."

After an hour and a half, during which they ransacked and looted his office, the attackers finally told Miller they would spare his life if he and his family left the country immediately. Although local police and the U.S. Embassy investigated the incident, and Miller later identified two of his attackers, it is not clear whether the three minors were charged or convicted of a crime.

"I am sure it was not AlQaeda, but a local group that is uncomfortable with the presence of a Christian church and foreign church workers here," Miller told Compass.

Last month, two new incidents targeted the Gaziantep congregation. On the evening of April 9, two unknown vandals tried to break into the church's meeting place, using sound bombs to try to break down the front door and blow in a balcony window. Investigating police described the door blast as equivalent to 150 small firecrackers in a pipe.

On April 20, a similar bomb was left in front of the home of one of the Turkish Christians in the congregation. It exploded about 10:30 in the evening, startling the whole neighborhood.

Several other acts of vandalism were also reported against the Agape House, a Protestant congregation in the Black Sea city of Samsun. The attacks included broken windows, as well as numerous incidents when eggs were thrown at the building.

Meanwhile, a Turkish Christian living in Istanbul's Maltepe district told Compass he has been threatened twice in the past year to stop hosting fellowship meetings in his home. In the most recent letter, attached to the window bars of his ground-floor flat two months ago, he was told, "This is a Muslim country," and he was urged to leave. If he loved his family, the letter advised, he should resettle in a Christian country.

"I don't know how much of a real threat this is," he admitted. "I'm not afraid of people's reactions, but I am afraid of threats against my family." He said he never reported the incidents to the police because his brother had been told by a policeman that the authorities were "secretly watching" his group.

None of the attacks against Protestants have received coverage in the national press, in part because local Christians admit they are reluctant to be identified and harassed even further.

"But if there is no response to these incidents of violence and to the youths doing it, they will just continue," APC press spokesman Isa Karatas told Compass. "It's necessary to bring it up as an issue," he said, particularly since officials in the local governor's office and police force can often identify the troublemakers involved.

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June (Web-only) 2005, Vol. 49