“Turkey sees Protestants as danger to state security”

Pastor Kjell Haltorp (83) was arrested at the airport in Istanbul last Thursday.

The EU should increase political pressure on Turkey, to respect the freedom of religion of its religious minorities, like Christians. As long as religious freedom is violated, Turkey should not be able to become an EU member state, Christian MEP Bert-Jan Ruissen (ECR) argued.

There are possible threats to the national security from the Ukrainian Orthodox Church that belongs to the Moscow Patriarchate, Vasyl Maliuk, the head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), says.