DEADLY MIX FINDS ITS PREY IN MALATYA
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 20 2007
[NEWS ANALYSIS]
The brutal murder of three Christian missionaries in the southeastern
city of Malatya on Wednesday, less than a year after the slaying of
an Italian priest in the Black Sea region and the assassination of
ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink — all by young, unemployed,
lower-class men at a time of increased political tension — are
likely to cause a sober questioning of the process whereby Christian
missionaries were made into objects of hatred, and at the same time,
and an uneasy examination of just where Turkey went wrong with its
young people.
Until just six years ago, Turkey’s Christians drew the ire of small
radical Islamist groups only. However, in 2001, a National Security
Council (MGK) meeting chaired by then-prime minister Bulent Ecevit
included "missionary activity" on its list of national security
threats, making it a widespread concern across the country. A wide
range of ideological groups from nationalist, neo-nationalists
and Islamists, started claiming that missionaries were carrying
out separatist activities and turning millions of Muslims into
Christians. Some even went so far as to suggest that the 2002
killing of a neo-nationalist academic was the doing of Christian
missionaries. All the aggravation directed at missionaries finally
worked, and Christians across the country came to be eyed suspiciously
by all segments of society, sometimes manifesting itself in outright
criminal activity. Attacks against churches became more frequent
and the long process hit its peak when Italian priest Andrea Santoro
was killed in Trabzon last year in February by a 16-year-old whose
mother later commented to the media that her son would "do jail time
for Allah."
In 2005 Rahþan Ecevit, the wife of the late former Prime Minister
Bulent Ecevit, in a statement she made criticizing laws allowing
foreigners to buy land, said, "One way of dividing Turkey is by
encouraging citizens to convert to other religions." Around the same
time, leading historians and researchers Ýlber Ortaylý, Hasan Unal,
Aytunc Altýndal and a senior member of Ecevit’s Democratic Left
Party (DSP) got together in the couple’s house in Ankara to discuss
"missionary activities in Turkey," a meeting that did not go unnoticed
by the media and consequently the public. Rahþan Ecevit reiterated
her concern about missionary activity in June of last year.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahceli in a rally
in 2005 in the southern city of Adana also expressed concern about
missionary activities. In an earlier speech in 2002, Bahceli had stated
that "missionary activity in Turkey is on the rise, and evaluating
recent attempts to revive the Pontus ideology from all sides is an
absolute necessity." Neo-nationalist Grand Unity Party’s (BBP) leader
Muhsin Yazýcýoðlu, following the killing of Father Santoro in Trabzon,
claimed that Christian missionaries in Turkey were backed by the US
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Saadet (Happiness or Contentment) Party (SP) leader Recai Kutan in a
recent conference had complained that the real extent of missionary
activity was "not adequately being relayed to the public." Another
politician, Haydar Baþ, who heads the Independent Turkey Party (BDP),
claimed only last year that missionaries were trying to "convert
our children."
The case of Malatya
Journalist and Bilgi University instructor Kurþat Bumin points out that
the murders in Malatya have an undeniably political aspect, but he does
not agree that such incidents, obviously devised to take up significant
space in the international media, are necessarily "provocations."
"They say this is a religious attack; this, too, is wrong," Bumin told
Today’s Zaman. Bumin asserts that recent attacks against minorities are
the result of a long process wherein certain segments of society were
gradually turned against missionaries. Bumin underlines that recent
murders are the result of a process and not the doing of organized
provocateurs. A youth group influenced by neo-nationalism with Islamist
overtones gradually emerged. Recalling how someone supposedly on the
left such as Rahþan Ecevit could make remarks about how Islam in Turkey
was in danger posed by missionary, Bumin points out that both the
media and politics are responsible for the fallout from the process.
Bumin gave as a recent example a radical daily reporting the
Malatya incident yesterday that omitted the comments of a foundation
representing Islam which had said the work of Christian missionaries
corresponds to Islam’s "explaining" of itself and that there is
nothing wrong with carrying out missionary activities. "The radical
daily only printed the part that condemned the attack," he observed.
Indeed, the daily entirely ignored the Muslim foundation’s remarks
that there was nothing wrong with Christians trying to spread the
word of their religion.
The right societal infrastructure
Nevzat Tarhan, psychiatrist and the author of numerous publications
on the social psychology regarding various issues in Turkey, points
out that the societal infrastructure of Turkey currently is fertile
ground for such ideological and political murders.
Pointing out that such murders are usually committed by "immature
personalities" who don’t have an ideal in life and who are unable to
make sense of concepts such as religion, are very open to manipulation,
he said, "Anti-EU or anti-US sentiment and paranoid perceptions
related to these are transforming into hostility against Christians,"
underlining that it is almost impossible for the perpetrators to see
the distinction between the two. However, he notes that it is not
very realistic to believe that five such young people, as in the case
of the Malatya Bible publisher murders, are capable of taking such
decisions by themselves. "They can’t do something like this without
relying on some power," he points out.
He notes that part of the problem is the existence of an increasingly
aggressive, disgruntled and unemployed youth. "There is a youth
without any social ideals. These kids usually have problems, and it
is very easy to make them members of a crime organization. In fact,
this is a method of suicide for many."
Tarhan also agrees that politicians are partially guilty. "Ambiguity
in politics such as the recent lack of clarity in the presidential
election adds to this atmosphere."
One important means to fight back would be to "make sure this kind of
behavior is unwanted in society." Tarhan thinks the reaction shown by
the media and the public in the aftermath of the Hrant Dink murder,
when hundreds of thousands gathered at his funeral to protest the
assassination, served that function. "Here, too, at least 100, 000
people in Malatya should march to protest the attack. Civil society
organizations should organize that," Tarhan said.
Sociologist Nilufer Narlý points out that the Italian priest’s murder
and Hrant Dink’s murder, as well as the most recent incident are
unarguably linked to the increasing violence in society.
Indeed, Turkey’s overall crime rate last year went up by a worrisome
61 percent. Parricides, rapes, murders and school violence hit the
newspapers every day. The danger is that the upsurge in the number
of violent incidents desensitizes people. "Widespread violence serves
to normalize violence," Narlý underlines.
In addition, polarization between marginal groups is one of the
factors motivating the incidents. The profile of an uneducated or
poorly educated male going through the tough years of his late teens
from the fringes of the city with little or no hope for a better
future is either too easily manipulated, or young men with this
profile easily commit hate crimes through fanatical interpretation
of what they read in the media.
If some light can be shed on the background of the Malatya murders
as well as other similar incidents, Turkey will be able to access
invaluable information on the situation of its youth. "Extensive
social rehabilitation projects can be started," Narlý says, adding,
"We need a series of policies targeting our youth."
Narlý says that young people in Turkey have been neglected too
long and that the lack of social policies targeting them in the
past decade or so has resulted in a fatal mistake that Turkey is
apparently now paying for dearly. "There is the [political] climate
and political tensions. Young people can readily pay lip service to
extreme political views."
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