Christian refugees face difficulties, hide religion in Turkey

Some 45,000 Christians who fled Syria and Iraq are forced to hide their religious identity in the Turkish provinces of Yozgat, Aksaray and Çorum. 

Around 45,000 Armenians, Syriacs and Chaldean Christians who fled to Turkey have applied to the United Nations to be able to go on to the U.S., Canada or Austria and have been granted residency in Turkey until 2023. Most now live in small Anatolian cities including Yozgat, Aksaray, Çorum, Amasya, K?r?ehir, Erzurum, and Afyonkarahisar.

The Syriac and Armenian Patriarchates, the Istanbul Syriac Orthodox Church and a number of NGOs are supporting many of these refugees financially, but their problems go far beyond financial struggles.

For the Armenians, the situation has a historic angle, as many are returning to lands that their ancestors were forced to leave 100 years ago.

Anonis Alis Salciyan, an Armenian who fled Iraq one year ago with her family and then settled in the Central Anatolian city of Yozgat, told Hürriyet that they pretended to be Muslim in public. A picture of the Virgin Mary hung on the wall next to a plastic Christmas tree in the room where the Salciyan family lives. 

Anonis' ancestors were driven from Anatolia by the Ottoman authorities and local Muslims a century ago. One hundred years later, they have once again been forced to leave their country.

"My family was originally from [the southeastern Turkish province of] Van. My husband's family came from [the southeastern province of] Gaziantep. My husband and I fled [Iraq] with our two children one year ago with around 20 other families. There was pressure on us in Iraq," Anonis' said, recalling that her husband, who ran a jewelry shop in Iraq, is unemployed in Yozgat.

 "We have relatives in...