ANKARA, TURKEY (ANS) -- Police in the Turkish capital of Ankara have warned a legally recognized church that it would be closed in three days.

That news comes from the Washington-DC based human rights group, International Christian Concern (ICC).

According to ICC, the Ankara-based Batikent Protestant Church is one of the very few Protestant churches which have been legally recognized in Turkey after winning a series of precedent-setting court cases.

However, ICC reported that on June 2, two police officers served the pastor with a notice from the local government that the church would be closed within three days because it is meeting in a building unapproved as a place of worship.

Last year, Batikent Protestant Church won a court case against the Yenimahalle Municipal Government that overturned the government’s attempts to shut it down on the basis of zoning code violations. The most recent notice is forcing the church to fight yet another legal battle over a case it has already won.

ICC reported that on June 4, the founding pastor of the Batikent Protestant Church, Daniel Wickwire, had his attorneys initiate a legal challenge against the June 2 police notice.

According to ICC, Wickwire, who has been a missionary pastor in Ankara for the past 23 years, said, “It is very obvious that what is happening to our church is a pre-meditated, continuous and jointly orchestrated direct attack against the church as a whole in Turkey by the right-wing Islamic government (AK Party) that is currently in control in Turkey.”

He alleged that the Yenimahalle Municipal Government has been working in conjunction with the national Ministry of the Interior to try to shut down the church.

ICC said that Wickwire has been the target of a lot of hostility “for having the audacity to take the Turkish Constitution’s guarantee of religious freedom at face value.”

ICC said that Wickwire has been forced to stay in Turkey as a tourist for the past 19 years while having to leave the country every 90 days. That because the government refuses to give him either a residence permit, or a work permit, on the basis that he is a missionary.

ICC said that Wickmire’s attempts to apply for a work permit at the Turkish Consulate in Chicago have been “lost” in red tape. A year after he applied in Chicago, his wife returned to follow up on the application, and was refused her request for information.

According to ICC, Wickwire said, “The consulate officials became very nervous, and said that they would lose their jobs if they were to give out this information. They said that if we were Muslims, we would not be having this kind of trouble.”

Wickwire has been involved in over 15 court cases in the last 6 years in order to keep the church doors open.

He told ICC, “It is high time for the international community to speak out against such overt, blatant and continual harassment and persecution of the church.”

ICC asked for prayer for Wickwire and the Batikent Protestant Church.

For more information, go to www.persecution.org 

Jeremy Reynalds is a freelance writer and the founder and CEO of Joy Junction, New Mexico's largest emergency homeless shelter, http://www.joyjunction.org He has a master's degree in communication from the University of New Mexico, and a Ph.D. in intercultural education from Biola University in Los Angeles. His newest book is "The Face of Homelessness." Additional details are available at http://www.HomelessBook.com He lives in Albuquerque, New Mexico. For more information contact: Jeremy Reynalds at jeremyreynalds@comcast.net. Tel: (505) 400-7145. Note: A higher resolution JPEG picture of Jeremy Reynalds is available on request from Dan Wooding at danjuma1@aol.com.