United States Commission on International Religious Freedom

Nadine Maenza joins Thanos Davelis to look at what's at stake for religious and ethnic minorities in Syria in the wake of Assad's fall. Maenza is president of the IRF Secretariat, an international organization focused on building infrastructure to support the religious freedom movement globally.

The Hellenic-American Leadership Council (HALC) has called for a review of Turkey's position in the Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, published by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. HALC has proposed that Turkey be included in the "Countries of Particular Concern" (CPC) list.

Earlier this week Turkey formally opened the monastery of Chora, a former Byzantine church and UNESCO World Heritage Site in Istanbul, as a mosque. The move follows the conversion of the Hagia Sophia into a mosque in 2020, and has drawn international criticism.

Nadine Maenza, the President of the IRF Secretariat, a Global Fellow at the Wilson Center, and the previous chair of USCIRF, joins Thanos Davelis to look at what a resurgent ISIS means for the region, particularly in the autonomous zone in north east Syria, and break down why we need to put the spotlight on Turkey's role in this ISIS comeback.

In 2020 Turkey's government changed the status of Hagia Sophia from a museum into a mosque. Now, Ankara is looking to repeat this with another important UNESCO World Heritage site, Chora Church.

The Hellenic American Leadership Council, an influential Greek-American advocacy group, has launched a petition against Ankara's conversion of another important Byzantine monument, the Chora Church, into a mosque.

Tugba Tanyeri Erdemir, the coordinator of ADL's Task Force on Middle East Minorities and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute, joins Thanos Davelis to look at religious freedom conditions in Turkey and highlight the key issues raised in USCIRF's 2023 Annual Report report, which recommended that Turkey be placed on the Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violat

Turkey on April 29 slammed a report by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom which recommended the U.S. government include Turkey on its "Special Watch List" (SWL) for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom.

The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has released its annual report for 2016, where it once again categorized Turkey as a Tier 2 country, defined as a place where rights violations are "serious." The report noted some improvements in the country's record in terms of minority religious celebrations and compensation for minorities' expropriated properties, whil