EU: MALATYA ANOTHER INCIDENT IN SERIES OF ANTI-REFORM PROVOCATIONS

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
April 20 2007

The European Union believes the killing of three people in Malatya
is yet another provocation by those who want the reform process to
grind to a halt.

While the EU Commission has condemned the killing very strongly,
as did the Council of Europe and several MEPs, it thinks the motive
behind the killings was to stop the reform process that has deepened
since the AK Party came to power. A senior official from the EU
Commission told Today’s Zaman that those responsible were those who
were against the reform process, human rights and the deepening and
strengthening of Turkish democracy. Drawing attention to the murders
of priest Andrea Santoro and Turkish journalist of Armenian origin
Hrant Dink, the official said it was no coincidence that Christians
were targeted in all three incidents.

Meanwhile, Joost Lagendijk of the European Parliament’s Turkey
delegation, visiting the nearby southeastern Anatolian province of
Diyarbakýr, said the killings would send a negative message to Europe
and that there was paranoia about missionaries in Turkey. "The public
reaction to be shown against these murders is actually important,"
Lagendijk said, while also calling on the Turkish government to deliver
a call for tolerance. "Europe will perceive the killings to mean that
those who attempt to seek converts to other faiths in Turkey will
face a similar fate. It is very important for the government to appeal
for the acceptance of different religions and ethnic backgrounds."

In Seoul, Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi said murders in Malatya
would not be helpful for Turkey’s EU process. "I call on the Turkish
government to be diligent regarding democratic rules concerning
living together. The Turkish government should not let these kinds
of tragedies to change the political line that they have pursued,"
Prodi said. The right-wing opposition parties in Italy, meanwhile,
urged Prodi to inform the Italian Parliament concerning the incident
in Malatya.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the attack
"in the strongest terms," and said he expected Turkish authorities
would "do everything to clear up this crime completely and bring
those responsible to justice."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Party, which
opposes Turkey’s bid to join the EU, said the attacks that included
a German citizen showed the country’s shortcomings in protecting
religious freedoms. "The Turkish state is still far from the freedom
of religion that marks Europe," the party’s general secretary, Ronald
Pofalla, said in a statement. 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.

SELCUK GULTAÞLI, Today’s Zaman with wires BRUSSELS, ANKARA

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