MINISTRY OPENS INQUIRY INTO MALATYA POLICE OFFICERS

Today’s Zaman, Turkey
Dec 10 2007

The Interior Ministry has finally opened an investigation into
allegations of obstruction of justice and destruction of evidence
by police to protect suspects charged with killing three Christians
earlier this year at a publishing house that produces Bibles, a
ministry official announced on Saturday.

Two senior police inspectors will be assigned to investigate whether
any officers provided assistance to the suspects, Interior Ministry
officials said. "Depending on the results of the investigation, the
necessary legal actions will be taken against any police personnel
involved," officials were quoted as saying by daily Radikal.

The three Christians — a German and two Turks — were killed in the
southern city of Malatya on April 18. The killings — in which the
victims were tied up and had their throats slit — drew international
condemnation.

Five people were arrested and charged with murder. The trial started
last month but was quickly adjourned until Jan. 14 because defense
attorneys requested more time to prepare their arguments.

The Interior Ministry decided to launch an investigation after several
newspapers published stories Saturday alleging cooperation between
police and at least one of the suspects.

Reports in newspapers quoted two of the suspects, Abuzer Yýldýrým
and Salih Guler, as saying in their testimony that a third suspect,
Emre Gunaydýn, told them that he had met with police officials and
learned about the locations of Christian churches in the city.

"I asked him, ‘Who are the police chiefs you were talking to?’ He said,
‘Don’t ask, take it easy’," newspapers quoted Yýldýrým as saying.

Similar allegations emerged after the January killing of an ethnic
Armenian journalist, Hrant Dink, who was detested by hard-line
nationalists because he described the mass killings of Armenians
in the early 20th century as genocide, a charge that Turkey denies,
insisting those killed were victims of civil war and unrest.

Critics have accused authorities of failing to act on reports of
a plot to kill Dink, but there has been no evidence that directly
implicates any police or government officials in the slaying of Dink
outside his office.

Many Turks are convinced that a phenomenon called the "deep state"
— a network of state agents or ex-officials, possibly with links to
organized crime — periodically targets reformists and what they deem
perceived enemies of the state in the name of nationalism.

Christian leaders have said they are worried that nationalists are
stoking hostility against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting
uncertainty over Turkey’s place in the world. Many analysts believe
some of the recent killings targeting non-Muslims, including the
killing of an Italian priest in Trabzon last year, were attempts
directed at derailing Turkey’s EU membership process.

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