FORMER PRIEST TURNED MUSLIM TURNS OUT TO BE MILITARY MAN
Today’s Zaman, Turkey
June 12 2008
A former Turkish priest who had been working with foreign missionaries
and then converted to Islam was actually an intelligence officer
with the Turkish Land Forces, a Turkish daily has reported, but he
has denied acting as a "provocateur."
According to a headline story "Provocateur Specialist Sergeant"
published in the daily Bugun on June 11, İlker Cınar, who became
famous after publishing a book in 2005 titled "Ben Bir Misyonerdim,
Å~^ifre Cözuldu" (I was a Missionary, The Code is Broken), is
registered as a "special sergeant" in the Pension Fund’s (Emekli
Sandıgı) records.
"Records from the Emekli Sandıgı Mersin regional office show that
Cınar had been registered on Aug. 16, 1992 as a ‘special sergeant’
with the record number of 706661XX and his premiums have been paid
regularly," stated the daily.
The story indicated that the Emekli Sandıgı office confirmed that
Cınar is a member of the Turkish Land Forces. The Emekli Sandıgı
is only for public personnel and individuals who cannot pay their
own premiums.
Speaking to Hilal TV, Cınar denied that he was a "provocateur" and
said he was only reporting on missionary activities in Turkey: "I am
a Muslim, I have been revealing missionary activities in Turkey. I
haven’t done anything illegal."
Cınar had claimed in 2005 that international missionary institutions
had allocated $73 billion for Turkey and that the missionaries in
Turkey produced 15 million Bibles and distributed them for free. He
also said there were 40,000 church-homes in Turkey, while claiming that
foreigners were engaging in illegal missionary activities in Turkey,
that they supported Kurdish and Alevi separatism and that they were
involved in smuggling of some historical artifacts.
Cınar, who had been a priest in Tarsus and traveled around Turkey for
missionary activities, had later devoted himself to anti-missionary
work and had spoken extensively about his claims on live Turkish TV
talk shows, receiving wide coverage in the media, especially in 2005
after his book came out. Cınar supported the idea that the missionary
activities of foreigners in Turkey have been dividing the country and
that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has been
contributing to the same goal by passing legislation to harmonize
with the standards of the European Union.
Press consultant for the Association of the Turkish Protestant Churches
Ä°sa KarataÅ~_ said they were not concerned about Cınar’s statements
as long as such statements do not put forward slanderous information
about their community.
"If he is really an informant, this is not a big surprise to
us. We know that our churches have been closely watched, we are
not complaining about this. We want the state to know what we are
really doing but we want such informants — if there are any —
to report the truth to whatever organization they are working for,"
Karata? said in a written statement to Today’s Zaman.
The Bugun article draws attention to the fact that murders of Christian
priests followed Cınar’s allegations.
Italian priest Andrea Santoro was killed by a teenager on Feb. 5, 2006,
in his church in the northern Black Sea port city of Trabzon. The
teenage perpetrator, O.A., said he was influenced by the debates on
television concerning missionary activities in Turkey.
Records that came to light in February as part of another murder
case have shown that the priest was under police surveillance when
the murder occurred. The piece of information that the priest was
actually being monitored by the police was revealed by records
that went into the file of Yasin Hayal, whose trial is pending,
with the latter being charged as the prime inciter of the murder of
Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink in 2007. Dink was shot dead
outside his office in January of 2007 by an ultra-nationalist teenager,
who is also from Trabzon.
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