A Brief History of the Diyarbakır Fellowship

Church Elder Ahmet Güvener

In 1991 a brother named Erol moved to Diyarbakir with his family with the purpose of serving the Lord. After much effort on behalf of him and his family a small group began to meet in his home. Despite not seeing much growth in the earlier years ever since 1995 many positive developments began. During this time those who would be the future leaders of the fellowship were being raised up.

In 1996 a bookstore was opened in the central part of the city. Through this ministry many came to join the fellowship.

In 1997 because of some physical illnesses and because the church had matured more or less brother Erol felt like he had completed his ministry here and he decided to leave. Before leaving he, along with the approval of the fellowship, appointed Ahmet as elder along with Cengiz and Hamdullah as deacons in order to lead the church. During this time the church was meeting for worship in the homes of the believers. Also during these difficult years several foreign believers aided the church. Later on in order to meet more openly and be recognized by the government it became clear that the fellowship needed a building. This was a subject of prayer for many years.

In 1999 a suitable place was found in a very poor and historic neighborhood of the city. It was especially suitable because it was a directly across from the historic Madonna Orthodox church, thus it was purchased at a low price.

In 2001 after collecting support from many churches the construction got under way. Because there was no legal place in the laws for building a church at that time the construction was approved as a residence. However in the original project that was presented to the officials and later approved the attributes of a church were clearly delineated. Still several months after the construction got under way, on account of some harmful propaganda on behalf of the press, the construction was forced to a halt and the church leader in whose name the building was registered was taken to court. After a trial lasting a year and a half it became evident that the church leader was not guilty and he was acquitted. A short time later the construction was once more continued.

Early in 2003 the construction was completed and starting with the month of April the fellowship began to meet in the new building. However since the church was registered as a residence a few months later the we received the following statement from the Diyarbakir Governor's Office, “Worship in this building is a crime.” This time another court case was opened in the court of first instance against the church leader on the charge of “Opening a church illegally”.

In 2004 on the 12 th of May the church leader was miraculously acquitted in the first court hearing and along with that the church's path was cleared. A few days later the zoning change petition that had been submitted 5 months earlier was reviewed and although it was rejected the first time it was accepted the second time and was completed in due time. In April 2006 the church's petition to establish an Association was finally accepted so that we as a church fellowship are now a fully legal entity.

Today we continue to meet and worship freely under the protection granted to us by the Turkish Constitution.