Urban Planning as a Weapon Against Christ’s Kingdom in Turkey
EWTN News reports on a December 2024 Ayhan Şahenk Foundation study documenting how Turkish authorities systematically obstruct Christian institutions through zoning regulations and administrative procedures. The 88-page document details cases in Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir where municipalities block church construction and maintenance through land-use restrictions, permit denials, and bureaucratic delays. Minority rights advocate Laki Vingas describes this as “soft persecution,” noting that while no new church has been built since the 1960s, mosque construction proceeds unhindered through state facilitation. The report exposes a pattern of discrimination concealed beneath ostensibly neutral urban planning regulations.
The Secular State’s War Against Divine Law
This systematic obstruction constitutes iniuria in Deum (injury against God) by denying His Church the right to exist visibly in society. The Turkish state’s actions violate the fundamental principle that “Christus Dominus regnat!” (Christ the Lord reigns!), as proclaimed by Pius XI in Quas Primas (1925). When municipal authorities demand that the Armenian Catholic Church of the Assumption abandon its religious function to obtain repair permits, they enact the very secularism condemned in the Syllabus of Errors: “The State must be separated from the Church” (Error 55).
“Applications submitted by the Chaldean Catholic community in Ankara’s Çankaya district in 2015, 2017, and 2019 were all rejected on technical grounds related to building height restrictions, setback requirements, and parking ratios.”
These bureaucratic tactics expose the naturalistic heresy underlying modern governance. By reducing sacred spaces to mere real estate parcels subject to parking ratios, Turkey implements the modernist error that “the Church is not a true and perfect society” (Pius IX, Syllabus Error 19). The report’s documentation of 12-year delays for Syriac Orthodox building permits illustrates how secular states weaponize time against eternity – a demonic inversion of God’s order.
Silence on the Supernatural Betrays Complicity
The article’s clinical focus on “religious freedom” while omitting any mention of sacramental life reveals its conciliar captivity. Nowhere does it note that blocking church construction prevents:
- Celebration of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass
- Administration of Baptism and Confession
- Veneration of the Blessed Sacrament
This silence echoes Vatican II’s abandonment of extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (no salvation outside the Church). When the report laments zoning changes preventing “religious and educational use” of Greek Orthodox properties, it fails to identify the true crime: denying souls access to the means of salvation. The 99.8% decline in Turkey’s Christian population since 1914 constitutes not just demographic change, but deicide by bureaucracy – a slower but no less effective persecution than Ottoman massacres.
The Masonic Blueprint Behind “Neutral” Regulations
Turgut Tatlılıoğlu’s observation that “regulations themselves may appear neutral” but are applied discriminatorily unwittingly describes the Masonic strategy condemned by Leo XIII in Humanum Genus (1884). By creating “neutral” public squares through zoning laws, Turkey fulfills the revolutionary goal of eliminating Christ’s social reign. The report documents this in Kadıköy, where rezoned Christian properties face potential expropriation – precisely the “suppression of religious orders” denounced in the Syllabus (Error 53).
Vingas’ comparison of mosque construction (“approved within months”) versus church obstruction reveals Islam’s role as the Freemasons’ useful idiot. While superficially opposing, both forces collaborate to eradicate Catholicism – Islam through direct persecution, Freemasonry through secular governance. This explains why EWTN’s report avoids naming the true solution: Turkey’s submission to Christ the King as demanded by Quas Primas:
“When men recognize…the royal prerogatives of Christ…society will at last receive the great blessings of real liberty, well-ordered discipline, peace and harmony.”
Conclusion: Only Christ’s Reign Brings True Justice
The Ayhan Şahenk Foundation’s pragmatic recommendations – “transparent procedures,” “independent review mechanisms” – constitute modernist poison. No bureaucratic reform can cure a state founded on denial of Christ’s sovereignty. Turkey’s persecution will cease only when it kneels before its true Monarch, fulfilling Psalm 2:10-12: “Serve ye the Lord with fear: and rejoice unto him with trembling. Embrace discipline, lest at any time the Lord be angry.” Until then, every obstructed church foundation stone cries to heaven like Abel’s blood, awaiting the King who will “strike the ruthless with the rod of his mouth” (Isaiah 11:4).
Source:
How urban planning is used to undermine Christian institutions in Turkey (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 11.02.2026