U.S. report lists Turkey among world's worst violators of religious freedoms

PanARMENIAN.Net - A U.S. report has listed Turkey among the world's worst violators of religious freedoms.

According to Today’s Zaman, the report, which was leaked to the Associated Press on Monday by the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), grouped Turkey among 15 other nations in its “countries of particular concern” category for its "systematic and egregious limitations" of religious freedoms. The ranking was a sharp downgrade from Turkey's less-severe status as a watch-listed country in years past.

Expected to be released on Tuesday, the report also listed Tajikistan, Myanmar, North Korea, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, China, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam in its “countries of particular concern” category.

Namık Tan, Turkey's ambassador to Washington, defended recent efforts by the Turkish government to reverse decades of discrimination, telling AP that “any unbiased eye will immediately realize that that's not where Turkey belongs in the USCIRF annual report.”

Among other problems, the report criticizes Turkey for regulating non-Muslim groups by restricting how they can train clergy, offer education and own their places of worship, AP stated.