The state minister overseeing Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate warned yesterday that the propaganda of missionaries in the predominantly Muslim nation was part of politically oriented activities aimed at damaging the social peace and unity of Turkey, local news agencies reported today.

Responding to a parliamentary questionnaire concerning missionary activities in Turkey, Mehmet Aydin said missionaries were not simply spreading their religion by exercising freedom of belief but were intervening in people's freedom of belief by capitalizing on their ignorance, according to a report Monday by the Ankara-based Turkish Daily News.

"The goal of those activities is harming the cultural, religious, national and historical unity of the people of Turkey," Anatolia news agency quoted Aydin as saying. "These are not merely religious activities and they are not only carried out by Christian clerics. We have observed doctors, nurses, engineers, Red Cross officials, human rights defenders, peace activists and language tutors conducting missionary activities."

According to Anatolia, Aydin pointed out that the duty of the Religious Affairs Directorate was to "enlighten the people and eradicate ignorance," which, he said, created a "convenient environment for missionaries to deceive and convert people."

Those activities have "a historic background and are carried out in a well-planned manner with political motives," Aydin added.

Stating that the official number of people recorded as being converted via missionary propaganda is 368, Aydin said that it was impossible to calculate the actual figure since missionary activities were carried out covertly.

Although the region in which Turkey is now located was the center of much of the Apostle Paul's work for the early Christian Church, with the establishment of the Ottoman Empire, it became the