The congress, to be organized by Çevik's association, hopes to change the world opinion about how Turkey treats its Christians following recent attacks against non-Muslims. In January Hrant Dink, an ethnic Armenian newspaper editor, was shot dead in İstanbul by a teenager who said he had "insulted Turkishness." In April two Turks and a German, all evangelists, were murdered in Malatya. Their killers bound and tortured them before slitting their throats. In December an Italian Catholic priest was stabbed by a teenager in İzmir. Another Italian priest was shot dead in Trabzon in 2006. In December, the editor-in-chief of a daily Greek newspaper was beaten severely by unidentified attackers on the street, and only a week ago, an Antalya priest was stabbed by a young man. Luckily, he survived the attack.Although evidence shows that some of these attacks can be traced to rogue elements in the police and the army, the international reaction has been that these are mostly hate crimes caused by ultra-nationalists with an Islamist leaning. Çevik noted that attacks against Christians have found wide coverage in the European Press.
Çevik has also stated that the İzmir Police Department has taken tremendous measures at the Buca Baptist Church following last month's stabbing. He said the Turkish nation knew little about Christianity and expressed his opinion that Theology Departments across the country should do more research on Christianity.
"In the past few months, some extreme news stories in the media have negatively affected the society. Some people who don't know what they are doing stage various attacks. Although these acts do not represent the majority of our society, they are attributed to the entire nation by foreigners."
He said as Turkish Christians, they were committed to the solidarity and indivisible unity of the country and to the principles and revolutions of Atatürk, adding that they were ready to cooperate with anyone who shares the same commitments.
He also said some TV series that portray Christians as betraying Turks were wrong and creating bias, adding that although his church had strongly condemned cartoons insulting Muslims by a Danish artist, his church had been threatened.
Çevik also stated that they needed support from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to expand faith tourism around the İzmir area, which is home to an ancient church and some of the key events in Christian history.
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