NATIONALISM SUSPECTED IN 3 DEATHS IN TURKEY
By Sabrina Tavernise
International Herald Tribune, France
April 18 2007
ISTANBUL: Three people were found with their throats slit in a
publishing house in eastern Turkey that had printed Bibles and other
Christian literature, the authorities said Wednesday. One of the
victims was a German citizen.
The authorities detained five men for questioning, three 19-year-olds
and two 20-year-olds, but did not publicly identify them. However,
the publishing house in Malatya, a town with a nationalist reputation,
has had trouble in the past over a shipment of printed Bibles, and
it seemed likely that the attackers had a nationalist agenda.
Change is opening up Turkish society, and a nationalist fringe –
xenophobes for whom the ethnic and religious purity of the Turkish
state is worth killing for – have been using violence against its
proponents more often in recent months.
Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent killed this
winter was one of the victims. A Roman Catholic priest killed last
year was another.
The trend is worrying for the government, whose prime minister,
Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been pushing hard for Turkey to gain entry
to the European Union.
Some European politicians have opposed Turkey’s membership arguing
that Turkey does not fit culturally or religiously, and the killings
of Christians, though rare, do not help Turkey’s case.
The victims were found seated in chairs, their hands and feet bound,
said Halil Ibrahim Dasoz, a government official in Malatya in comments
on Turkish NTV television. One died later from his wounds.
He had also been stabbed in the back and stomach.
The state-run Anatolian agency identified the victims as Tilman
Ekkehart Geske, 46; Necati Aydin, 35; and Ugur Yuksel, whose age was
not given. The German ambassador, Eckart Cuntz, confirmed through a
spokesman that one of the victims was a German citizen. He declined
to give further details.
Reuters quoted Carlos Madrigal, an evangelical pastor in Istanbul,
saying that he knew the victims and that they were evangelical
Protestants.
The killings took place in the building where the publishing house
was based, the Turkish interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said at
a news conference on national television.
The five suspects were apprehended quickly, because a police station
was located close by, Aksu said. Several of the young men were carrying
weapons. Another, who had broken his leg in a jump from a window,
was also detained. NTV television broadcast footage of authorities
rushing four young men down the stairwell of a building.
The recent nationalist attacks are ghosts from Turkey’s past. Malatya
once had a heavy Armenian population, but lost it in the bloody
founding of the Turkish state, which was trying to scrub the nation
free of minority identity to build a new Turkey.
It encouraged nationalists to resettle in the area in an effort to
preserve Turkish identity there.
"Nationalism is on the rise in Turkey," said Ali Bulac, a Turkish
newspaper columnist in Istanbul. "It stands against the U.S. and
the EU."
The Anatolian news agency reported that the young men had been
staying at a youth hostel in town, preparing for university entrance
exams. One had been thrown out for getting into a fight. It also
reported that they had checked out of the hostel recently and that
a note incriminating them in the killing was found on one of them.
The publishing house had changed its name after having trouble with
nationalist groups that had forcefully blocked a shipment of bibles,
Meftun Kilinc, a reporter for ERTV, a television station in Malatya,
said in a telephone interview. She said the new name was Zirve
Publishing.
Turkish nationalists tout their Muslim identity, but often have more
in common with hard-line secularists of the state elite than with
Islamists. The distinction is important because of the broad debate
now roiling Turkish society over the role of religion and its proper
relation to the state. That disagreement has come sharply into focus
in recent weeks as the country faces an election to its presidency,
the post safeguarding secularism.
Erdogan, whose political background is Islamic, may try to compete
for it, a possibility that has hard-line secularists worried.
Sebnem Arsu contributed reporting.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
