TURKISH POLICE DETAIN FIVE MORE OVER MURDERS AT CHRISTIAN PUBLISHER
Agence France Presse — English
April 19, 2007 Thursday
Turkish police detained five more suspects in the gruesome murder
of three people at a Christian publishing house in this conservative
eastern city, officials said Thursday.
The latest arrests brough to 10 the number of people in custody for the
killings Wednesday that fuelled fears among Turkey’s tiny Christian
community and raised concerns over religous freedom in this mainly
Muslim country seeking to join the European Union.
The victims, one of them a German, were found tied to chairs with
their throats slit at the Zirve (Summit) publishing house, which is
owned by Turkey’s Protestant community.
Five suspects, including a man who jumped out of a third floor window
to escape capture, were detained at the scene of the crime.
Announcing the arrest of the other five, Malatya Governor Halil Ibrahim
Dasoz gave no details, but said they were all of the same age group —
young men aged 19 and 20.
Turkish newspapers said all the suspects apprehended at the scene were
carrying copies of a letter that read: "We did it for our country. They
are trying to take our country away, take our religion away."
They lived together at a local dormitory run by a religious foundation,
media reports said.
Police have yet to make a statement on the motives for the murders,
but the press Thursday agreed that nationalist and religious zeal
were the likely cause.
"We did not do this for ourselves, but for our religion… Let this be
a lesson to the enemies of our religion," one of the suspects allegedly
said in his testimony, the mass-circulation daily Hurriyet reported.
Several newpapers linked the attack to others against Christian
minorities in Turkey, including the killings of Roman Catholic priest
Andrea Santoro last year and ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink
in January.
Turkish Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul described the murders as "an
attack against Turkey’s stability, peace and tradition of tolerance".
"There have been similar attacks in the past," Gul said in Ankara.
"We will certainly take stricter measures."
Speaking to reporters in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, European
Parliament member Joost Lagendijk said the killings would send Europe
a negative message.
"Europe will perceive the killings to mean that those who attempt to
seek converts to other faiths in Turkey will face a similar fate,"
Lagendijk said. "It is very important for the government to appeal
for the acceptance of different religions and ethnic backgrounds."
The dead were identified named as 46-year-old German Tilman Geske
and Turkish nationals Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel.
Aydin was the pastor of the 30-strong Protestant community of Malatya,
Ihsan Ozbek, the chairman of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in
Turkey, told AFP.
Ozbek described Tilman as a "simple member" of the Protestant community
in the city and said both Turks worked for the publishing house.
"The community in Malatya never received any threat," said Ozbek,
who is also the pastor of the Salvation Protestant Church in Ankara.
"There was only one incident in 2005, a protest against the publishing
house."
Media reports said the publisher had been the target of protests by
nationalists accusing it of seeking Christian converts.
Proselytizing is generally viewed with suspicion in Turkey, whose
population is 99 percent Muslim; small Greek Othodox, Catholic,
Armenian and Jewish communities are concentrated mainly in Istanbul.
Turkey is under pressure to guarantee the protection and freedom of
non-Muslim minorities as part of its efforts to join the EU, but a
recent series of attacks has raised concerns that nationalism and
anti-Christian hostility are on the rise.
In February 2006, Father Santoro was shot dead as he prayed in his
church in the northern city of Trabzon. A teenager was convicted of
the murder and jailed for nearly 19 years.
In January, journalist Hrant Dink, a prominent member of Turkey’s
Armenian community, was gunned down in an Istanbul street. A
17-year-old, detained along with 11 other suspected ultra-nationalists,
confessed to the killing.