Turkey

According to the New Testament, Christianity came to Turkey through the missionary work of Saints Paul and Barnabas in Asia Minor. The region was a main centre of early Christianity, and the first seven Ecumenical Councils were all held there. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453 established Islam as the dominant religion. The majority of the country’s Armenian, Greek, and Assyrian Christians were killed by state-sponsored genocide in the early 20th century. Despite Atatürk’s founding of the secular Turkish Republic in 1923, Islam remains central to Turkish identity and Christians are often discriminated against. As of 2015, 99% of Turkey’s population are Muslims and only 0.2% are Christians.