3 EVANGELICALS FOUND SLAIN IN EAST TURKEY
By Sabrina Tavernise; Sebnem Arsu Contributed Reporting.
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
April 19, 2007 Thursday
Three people were found with their throats slit in a publishing house
in eastern Turkey that printed Bibles and other Christian literature,
the authorities said Wednesday. One victim was a German citizen.
Turkish authorities detained five men for questioning, three
19-year-olds and two 20-year-olds; the five were not identified. The
publishing house, in Malatya, a town with a reputation for nationalism,
has had trouble in the past over a shipment of Bibles, and it seemed
likely that the attackers had a nationalist agenda.
Change is opening up Turkish society, and the country’s nationalist
fringe, for whom the ethnic and religious purity of the Turkish state
is worth killing for, has been turning to violence more often. Hrant
Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent, who was killed in
January in Istanbul, was one of the victims. A Roman Catholic priest
was another.
The trend worries the government, whose prime minister, Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, has been pushing hard for Turkey’s entry into the European
Union. Some European politicians have opposed membership, arguing
that Turkey does not fit in culturally or religiously.
The three victims in Malatya were found seated in chairs, their hands
and feet bound, Halil Ibrahim Dasoz, a government official there, said
in comments on NTV, a Turkish news channel. One did not die from his
wounds until later; he had also been stabbed in the back and stomach.
The state-run Anatolian news agency identified the victims as Tilman
Ekkehart Geske, 46; Necati Aydin, 35; and Ugur Yuksel, whose age was
not given. The German ambassador to Turkey, Eckart Cuntz, said through
a spokesman that one victim was a German citizen but he declined to
give details.
The victims were evangelical Protestants, said an evangelical pastor
in Istanbul, Carlos Madrigal, who said he knew them, Reuters reported.
The killings took place in the building where the publishing house
was based, the Turkish interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said at
a news conference.
Several of the suspects were carrying weapons when they were
apprehended, the authorities said. One had broken his leg in a jump
or fall. NTV broadcast images of authorities rushing several 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 in eastern Turkey, Armenians
were driven out or killed in a series of purges culminating in the
1915 genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians died.
Subsequently, nationalists were urged to settle in the area to preserve
a Turkish identity there.
Mehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981,
was from Malatya, as was Mr. Dink, the outspoken journalist.
"Nationalism is on the rise in Turkey," said Ali Bulac, a Turkish
newspaper columnist in Istanbul. "It stands against the U.S. and
the E.U."
The publishing house had changed its name recently after trouble
with nationalists who had forcefully blocked a shipment of Bibles,
said Meftun Kilinc, a reporter from ERTV, a station in Malatya, who
spoke in a telephone interview. She said the new name was the Zirve
Publishing House.
Turkish nationalists boast of their Muslim identity, but often have
just as much in common with the secularists of the state elite as with
Islamists. So it was not clear whether the suspects were motivated
more by a dedication to Islam or a longing for a pure Turkish state.
The distinction is important because of the broad debate over the role
of religion now roiling Turkish society. The discussion has become
more shrill in recent weeks because the country faces an election to
its presidency, the single most important post safeguarding secularism.
Prime Minister Erdogan, a former Islamist who has moderated his views
considerably, may try to compete for the presidency, a possibility
that has thrown some secularists into a panic.
