MOURNERS BURY GERMAN VICTIM OF PUBLISHING HOUSE ATTACK IN TURKEY, POLICE DETAIN 11TH SUSPECT

International Herald Tribune, France
The Associated Press
April 20 2007

MALATYA, Turkey: Singing hymns in Turkish, mourners on Friday buried
the German victim of this week’s attack at a Christian publishing
house, while local media reported police had detained an 11th suspect
in the slayings.

The killing of the German and two Turks – who had converted to
Christianity – highlighted the country’s uneasy relationship with
its minorities. Christians expressed fear that growing nationalism
and intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

Police detained five people Wednesday at the scene of the attack
Wednesday in the eastern city of Malatya, including one man who jumped
out of the window to avoid arrest. Another five suspects were detained
Thursday. Private Dogan news agency and other media reported that
police detained an 11th suspect on Friday in Istanbul. Police there
would not comment on the reports.

Hurriyet newspaper reported that some of the suspects told police
they had carried out the killings to protect Islam. Police did not
comment on the report.

The three victims were found with their hands and legs tied and their
throats slit. Their faces were bruised, and the ropes had cut into
their wrists.

On Friday, the Hurriyet reported that at least one victim had also
been stabbed many times.

"There were so many stab wounds that we couldn’t count them," Hurriyet
quoted Dr. Murat Ugras as saying. "It was clearly torture."

German victim Tilmann Geske was buried at an Armenian cemetery in
Malatya, overgrown with weeds. His wife and three children – aged 13,
10 and 8 – were among the mourners, who sang in Turkish to guitar
music and prayed for forgiveness for the attackers. His youngest,
Miriam, wept as dirt was shoveled onto his coffin.

Rev. Ahmet Guvener, the pastor at a church in the city of Diyarbakir,
prayed for tolerance.

"We are part of this country, we are not foreigners here," Guvener
said.

The attack added to concerns in Europe about whether the predominantly
Muslim country – which is bidding for European Union membership –
can protect its religious minorities.

Christian leaders said they worried that nationalists were stoking
hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing
uncertainty over Turkey’s place in the world.

The uncertainty – and growing suspicion against foreigners – has
been driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist
movement and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves –
and Turkey – as locked in battle with a hostile Christian West.

"Our lives are in danger because of this mind-set," the Rev. Ihsan
Ozbek, pastor of the Kurtulus Church in Ankara, told a news conference
in Malatya. He said there was a "witch hunt" under way against
Christians and other minorities.

Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as Vatican secretary of state is
Pope Benedict XVI’s top aide, called the attack "an insane act by a
fanatic minority."

"We must not waste the fruits of the pope’s visit to Turkey, which
has really brought us closer," Bertone was quoted as saying by Italian
news agency ANSA.

The pope visited Turkey in November, promising greater understanding
and dialogue with Islam.

Nationalists, who have long dominated public debate in Turkey, have
also begun to call for Turkey to withdraw its EU bid and make its
own way in the world. Some young men indoctrinated with a vision of
Turkish greatness – and with a view of the West as intent on keeping
the Islamic world weak – view non-Muslims with suspicion.

"The problem is our education and our media," Mustafa Efe, head
of Mujde FM, or Miracle FM, a Christian broadcasting station, said
after traveling to Malatya to meet Protestant pastors. "They always
say Christianity is dangerous because Christians are trying to break
up Turkey."

Christians make up just a fraction of 1 percent of Turkey’s population
of 71 million.

"There is this general atmosphere of fear – that Turkey will be
segmented," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer who
represented one of the slain Christians, Necati Aydin, 26, in an
earlier court case. Aydin was charged with insulting Islam and spent
a month in jail after he was found distributing Bibles in the Aegean
city of Izmir.

Christians and other minorities have watched Turkey’s struggling
EU bid with alarm. Many worry the papacy of Benedict XVI, who when
he was still a cardinal spoke against Turkey’s bid for membership,
would only contribute to their problems.