İhsan Özbek

İhsan Özbek (* 1963 in Istanbul , Turkey ) is a Turkish pastor and current chairman of the Association of Free Church Protestants, the "Kurtulus Church Association", in Ankara .

life and work

Özbek was born in Istanbul in 1963 to a Muslim family. According to his own statement, he first came into contact with Christianity at the age of 19 when he finally converted to Protestantism in 1983 . Özbek studied theology later in Florida in the United States. This also explains why his movement of the free church congregations "Kurtulus Churches Association", for which he has had official approval from Turkish authorities since 2005, has a strong American influence. As a pastor, he fought for the right to free religious development in Turkey before the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) , which secured him a lot of hostility due to the increasing nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism in Turkey.

Its community of around 300 members is now spread across seven Turkish cities and has been fighting against prejudice and for recognition ever since. Although the construction of new churches has recently been permitted again in Turkey, the congregation in Ankara has not been given suitable land to build a church. On April 18, 2007, the small Christian community in the eastern Turkish city of Malatya hit the headlines after members were murdered by religiously motivated fanatics.

Özbek is married to a Turkish Christian. The couple have two children together.

swell

1. ↑ ^{a b c} cf. Christiane Schlötzer in Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 91, from Friday, April 20, 2007, page 4
2. ↑ cf. http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,2447195,00.html