SUSPECTS TAKEN TO SCENE OF MURDER OF CHRISTIANS IN TURKEY
Deutsche Presse-Agentur, Germany
April 22, 2007 Sunday 9:56 AM EST
DPA POLITICS Turkey Crime Media Suspects taken to scene of murder of
Christians in Turkey Ankara
Four people arrested on suspicion of the murders of three Protestants
at a Christian publishing house last week were taken by police on a
tour of the crime scene Sunday to explain to prosecutors how they
entered the building and what occurred, the Anadolu news agency
reported.
Under heavy police security in the early hours of Sunday morning the
four toured the offices of Zirve Publishing House.
Five attackers raided the third floor office on Wednesday afternoon,
binding the three victims, a German and two Turks, by hand and foot
and slashing their throats. Two of the victims were declared dead at
the scene, the third died in hospital.
The alleged leader of the attack, Emre Gunaydin, is undergoing
treatment in hospital having jumped out of a window in order to avoid
arrest and has yet to be questioned by police.
Anadolu reported that he is no longer in a critical condition and
could soon be interviewed.
The three dead were named as Necati Aydin, 35, Ugur Yuksel, 32,
and German national Tilmann Geske, 43.
A doctor from the Turgut Ozal Medical Centre was reported by Hurriyet
newspaper on Friday as saying Yuksel had been tortured before his
throat was slashed.
"There were so many stab wounds that we couldn’t count them," Hurriyet
quoted Dr. Murat Ugrus as saying. "It was clearly torture."
According to Turkish media, the attackers had religious and nationalist
motives.
"We didn’t do this for ourselves, but for our fatherland and for our
faith," the attackers were quoted as saying by Hurriyet newspaper
last week. "That should teach the enemies of our faith a lesson."
Newspapers on Saturday reported that the attack was three months in
the making.
In Ankara, police on Saturday started an investigation into threats
made to Christian media outlets in the city, the NTV private television
station reported on Saturday.
The threats were made to three printing press centres, a publishing
house and a radio station, NTV reported. All five workplaces have
been assigned police protection.
The murders in Malatya are the latest in a string of attacks
on Christians in Turkey. In February 2006 a teenager shot dead an
Italian priest in the Black Sea city of Trabzon and earlier this year
a Turkish nationalist killed Turkish Armenian journalist Hrant Dink.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
