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.