Posted on 04/22/2007 6:40:31 PM PDT by blam
Turkish Islamists face Christians' death trial
By Damien McElroy in Malatya, Turkey
Last Updated: 12:54am BST 23/04/2007
A gang of suspected Islamic nationalists was facing the possibility of trial for the torture and murder of three Christians at a Bible publishers in Turkey last night after investigators called for their prosecution.
A judge was considering whether the group - 11 men and one woman - should face trial after they were questioned for eight hours over the deaths of two Turks and a German, who were bound to chairs and had their throats slit in Malatya on Wednesday.
As the victims sat dying, police, acting on a tip-off, burst through the door. The alleged ringleader, Emre Gunaydin, the 12th member of the gang, was critically injured after leaping from a fourth floor balcony.
The murders came amidst an upsurge in extremist violence as Turkey struggles to join the European Union.
As European leaders repeatedly postpone a target date for Turkish entry, resentment at the reforms being enacted to meet EU criteria is building.
The attack was the third against Christians in Turkey in a year. In the first case a Roman Catholic priest was stabbed at the altar in the Black Sea port of Trabzon, then an Armenian journalist was shot dead in central Istanbul. The common link was that the killers claimed they were defending Islam from Christian proselytising.
However, many Turks reject that they are a sign of a rising Islamic militancy that is sweeping the Middle East.
At first glance, Malatya appears far distant from any form of extremism. Its streets are lined with modern clothing and furnishing shops at the forefront of Turkey's economic renaissance. Its young population cheerfully lines up for buses to private universities that specialise in technology studies. Placards sell the dream of owning your own house.
On the journey between the Ilhas Vakfi Yurdu hostel and the publishing house there are at least five shops with prominent hoardings for Tuborg lager and Efes pilsner. If this were Baghdad and Islamic radicals were exerting their grip, the owners of the alcohol outlets would be dead.
Emine Cemal, a middle-aged Turkish woman nursing a beer in a bar, rejected the idea that the attacks were linked to a rising militant Muslim orthodoxy.
"I don't think this has a religious root, it's about nationality," she said. "To be Turkish is to be Muslim and so Christians are here working against Turkey."
In fact, Christians are a fraction of one per cent of Turkey's 71 million people but it is common for Turks to complain that evangelical churches are proliferating at an alarming rate. Courts continue to prosecute converts for insulting "Turkishness". Three members of the Turkish Protestant Church are currently standing trial.
Missionary activity, while not an offence, has been placed on the list of threats to the nation by the National Security Council.
The fusion of extreme nationalism and anti-Christian activity has a long history in Malatya. The city is the birthplace of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1982. It was also the home town of the slain journalist Hrant Dink.
The city's once large Armenian Christian population has been squeezed out. The only surviving remnant of the community is a derelict church. Yet the association lingers as a term of abuse. Rivals taunt supporters of Malatyaspor football team with "Armenian Malatya".
The secular Turkish Republic established after the fall of the Ottoman Empire does not fit easily into Brussels prescriptions of democracy. To meet European demands, Turkey is rapidly dismantling the rules established to purge religious influence from national life.
"Turkey is in a state of transition," said Hussein Ali Karacan, a leading nationalist. "The speed of transformation is shocking to the mindset of nationalists."
These guys are going to be sliding over to the Penetecostal brands just about as fast as the Guatemalans. If the Mullahs are targeting the Evangelicals, they are after the wrong guys ~ boy will they be surprised.
Perhaps the majority of Turks prefer not to join the EU. If they think the changes demanded of them now are mindboggling, wait until they see what happens after membership.
I think the Europeans will eventually be the ones suprised. This is a Trojan Horse.
Interesting, educational. Thanks for posting.
“To be Turkish is to be Muslim..”
I always thought that Kamel Attaturk changed all that.
Slaughtering Christians in a Muslim country can get you a ticket. If they’re unrepentant, the judge may even give them a stern talking to.
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