Keen to join the European Union, the country has improved its human rights record over recent years. The death penalty has been abolished, torture is prohibited, and criminal law has been revised. But Turkish Christian leaders are vulnerable to attack by Islamic extremists. In the last year, a number of church leaders have been kidnapped and threatened with death, churches have been set on fire, believers have been murdered, and two converts are on trial for 'insulting Turkishness'.

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