Indictment of ‘Masterminds’ of Murders in Turkey Expected

Judges in Turkey’s southeastern city of Malatya have announced the preparation of an indictment in the case of three murdered Christians that is expected to reveal a shadowy network that incited five young men to carry out the crime.


The Third Criminal Court of Malatya is expected to announce the indictment on April 9, followed by a week of witness testimony that judges believe will link the five murder suspects to the “masterminds” who prompted them, plaintiff lawyers said. The brutal murders of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske at the Zirve Publishing House by five young men in 2007 are believed to be part of a conspiracy to overthrow the current pro-Islamic government.


“In the next court hearing, the new indictment will certainly be ready, and the case will deepen as the suspects and instigators are judged together,” co-plaintiff lawyer Erdal Dogan told Compass.


Dogan said the case will speed up with the introduction of the new indictment and make it easier to bring those responsible to justice.


Co-plaintiff attorney Orhan Kemal Cengiz said that with this second indictment he expects former gendarmerie commanders and other officers who have been arrested in connection with the Malatya murders to finally take the stand in the case – something he and colleagues have long hoped for.


“The longer we wait, the more anxious we become, because it should have been announced [long ago],” Cengiz said.


Cengiz said he is not sure how deep the second indictment will probe into the network he and other attorneys believe was behind the five murderers. For the last five years, plaintiff lawyers have argued there is overwhelming evidence that the Malatya murders were connected to Ergenekon, a hidden network within the state alleged to have plotted crimes to destabilize the government.


“It is difficult to speak about it without seeing the indictment itself,” said Cengiz. “It should implicate a wider network behind these murders. But we don’t know to what extent they will expand the limits of the case. I hope it will uncover the real network, but it may be too shallow; then again, it may really go deep.”
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Christians help with earthquake relief in Turkey

An earthquake measuring 4.7 on the Richter scale jolted the Turkish Van city on Friday. Additional reports of damages have not been reported yet. An earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale jolted Van province on Oct.23 killing more than 600 people. Later earthquakes measuring 5.1 and 6.1 took place. Over 4,000 people were injured. About 2,262 buildings were destroyed.

A few weeks ago record low temperatures and heavy snow made life difficult for the more than 140,000 Turkish quake survivors still living in tents or temporary homes. However, relief continues to be a need in the region. Turkey Country Director for IN Network Behnan Kanutgan says the church only numbers about 3,500, but they're helping. "As Christians we want to show our love to people. We want to show mercy. That's one of the theological church services to serve the world. We need to evangelize and show mercy.

Kanutgan says most of the people who remain in Van are poor. He says Christians are having an impact, but it hasn't been easy. "There is a great hatred and deep prejudice against Christians. But, when we're talking to people and bless them and help them they see the difference and that is what we want to do, to be an example to our people in Turkey."

Kanutgan hopes, "By doing this people will realize that Christians exist in Turkey. A Turk means a Muslim -- Muslim means Turkey. We are Turkish people. We are Turkish citizens, but we are Christians. And, now the media started to realize this, and this is why we want to help those in need."
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1500 year-old ‘ Syriac ‘ Bible found in Ankara, Turkey

The relic was ‘rediscovered’ in the depositum of Ankaran Justice Palace, the ancient version of bible is believed to be written in Syriac, a dialect of the native language of Jesus.

Ankara / Turkey – The bible was already in custody of Turkish authorities after having been seized in 2000 in an operation in Mediterranean area in Turkey. The gang of smugglers had been charged with smuggling antiquities, illegal excavations and the possession of explosives and went to trial. Turkish police testified in a court hearing they believe the manuscript in the bible could be about 1500 to 2000 years old.After waiting eight years in Ankara the ancient bible is being transferred to the Ankaran Ethnography Museum with a police escort.

Ancient Bible will be shown in Ankaran Ethnography Museum

The bible, whose copies are valued around 3-4 Mil. Dollars had been transferred to Ankara for safety reasons, since no owners of the ancient relic could be found.

The manuscript carries excerpts of the Bible written in gold lettering on leather and loosely strung together, with lines of Syriac script with Aramaic dialect. Turkish authorities express the bible is a cultural asset and should be protected for being worthy of a museum.
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Orthodox Christian leader favors constitution promoting religious freedom in Turkey

The spiritual leader of the world’s Orthodox Christians said Monday that Turkey’s new constitution should grant equal rights to minorities in the country and safeguard religious freedoms.

Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I met with members of a parliamentary subcommittee seeking an all-party consensus in drawing up a new constitution, which will replace the one ratified in 1982 while Turkey was under military rule. The subcommittee is meeting with non-governmental organizations and representatives of minority groups for input on the drafting of the new laws.

Mostly Muslim Turkey, which is seeking to join the European Union, has small Christian and Jewish communities. The EU has made improved rights for the religious groups a condition for membership.

Turkey’s existing constitution guarantees religious freedom, but when it comes to minority religions the country has long been criticized for restricting the training of clergy and the ownership of places of worship, and for interfering with the selection of church leaders. It also has recognized Bartholomew I as the leader of the local church in Turkey, but not as ecumenical patriarch of all Orthodox Christians.

For decades, Turkey has mostly ignored demands of the Patriarchate, mainly due to mistrust stemming from a rivalry with Greece. However, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government has pledged to address the problems of religious minorities and said he hopes the new constitution will correct democratic shortfalls.

Bartholomew sounded optimistic about the new constitution.

“Unfortunately there have been injustices toward minorities until now,” Bartholomew said. “These are slowly being corrected and changed. A new Turkey is being born.”
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Christians Subject To Discrimination, Attacks, Report Says

Despite some promising developments, Christians in Turkey continue to suffer attacks from private citizens, discrimination by lower-level government officials and vilification in both school textbooks and news media, according to a study by a Protestant group.

In its annual “Report on Human Rights Violations,” released in January, the country’s Association of Protestant Churches notes mixed indicators of improvement but states that there is a “root of intolerance” in Turkish society toward adherents of non-Islamic faiths.

“The removal of this root of intolerance is an urgent problem that still awaits to be dealt with,” the report states.

“There is still a lot of room for improvement,” said Mine Yildirim, a member of the legal committee for the association. “These problems have not been solved in some time.”

The report documented 12 attacks against Christians in 2011, including incidents in which individuals were beaten in Istanbul for sharing their faith, church members were threatened and church buildings attacked. None of the attackers have been charged. In some of the attacks, the victims declined to bring charges against the assailants.

In some places in Turkey, some church leaders have to “live under some sort of police protection,” the report reads.

“There are at least five church leaders who have bodyguards, and at least two have a direct phone line to a police protection unit,” the report states. “Several churches have police protection during worship services.”

Yildirim said attacks have increased since the previous year, and that much of the problem lies in the fact that the Turkish government won’t admit there is a problem. The state routinely characterizes attacks on Christians as isolated acts of violence rather than the result of intolerance within elements across Turkish society.

“I think it has to be identified as a problem by the state, initially,” Yildirim said. “It is a problem that nothing is being done about at all.”

There are an estimated 120,000 Christians in Turkey, of which 3,000 are Protestants. Sunni Muslims make up close to 99 percent of the country’s 75 million people, according to United Nations’ population figures.

Attacks against Christians come from those who, at a minimum, question the “Turkishness” of Christian nationals or who, at the extreme, view Christians as spies out to destroy the country from within. Many of the more horrific attacks, such as the 2007 torture and killing of three Christians in Malatya, have been linked to members of nationalist movements. The criminal case into the murders continues without a court ruling thus far.

Along with attacks, Christians in Turkey continue to have problems establishing places of worship. The worst incident in that regard last year was on Dec. 23, when the local government of Istanbul’s Sancaktepe district sealed the entrance to the floor of a building rented by the Istanbul Family Life Association, allegedly because of licensing issues.

“When individuals went to the municipality to inquire about the situation, they were told there would not be any activity by the association allowed in that area and that the seal would not be removed,” the report states. “In the same building there are bars and cafes that continue their work along with other businesses. It is only the church association activities that are being banned; they are targets of hate speech and open favoritism of others.”

The report also identifies state policies that single out Christian children for harassment or vilification. A civics book, “The History of the Turkish Republic’s Reforms and ‘Ataturkism,’” taught to eighth-grade students, continues to characterize “missionary activities” as a national threat. The Ministry of Education ignored the association’s efforts to change the language, according to the association’s report.

“This example vividly shows that prejudice and intolerance has been built up by the Ministry of Education and has been worked into the thinking of others,” the report states.

Along with the government, the association points a finger squarely at Turkish news media for perceived bigotry toward Turkish Christians.

“The increase in the slanderous and misinformation-filled and subjective reporting with regard to Christians in 2011 is a worrisome development,” the report states.

Being a Christian is often characterized in the news media as a negative thing, according to the study, and many legal activities of church bodies were portrayed as if they were illegal or a liability to society. Some church groups were falsely linked to at least one terrorist group.

Despite all the problems, Christian Turkish nationals are still faring better than their regional counterparts in countries such as Iran, Iraq and Egypt. The report notes some positive developments in Turkey over the past year, including school administrators being more responsive to the rights of non-Muslim students to opt out of state-mandated Islamic education.

In addition, due to a court order, Turkish citizens are allowed to leave the religious affiliation space blank on their state-issued identification cards. The association noted that some government agencies have been more responsive to concerns about the rights of the Christian minority.

Yildirim declined to speculate on the future of Christians in Turkey but concluded, “Change can happen in Turkey; it just needs to be a priority.”
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Building mosques to restore churches

On February 9, the Georgian Patriarchate released a statement condemning a recent agreement between the Georgian and Turkish governments, on the restoration of religious sites on one another's sovereign territory. The Georgian government has consented to build a new mosque in Batumi, in exchange for restoration work to be conducted on the Oshki and Ishkhani monasteries in Turkey. The administration understandably presented this decision as an achievement, but the Georgian Orthodox Church considers the deal unacceptable.

The Patriarchate is primarily taking issue with the format of the negotiations, which it says ignores Georgian legislation dictating that the Church should participate in all such talks. Discussion has been ongoing for two years, and the Georgian government has yet to invite the Patriarchate – even though the Church was strong enough to scuttle a similar agreement three years ago.

In the new deal, which has yet to be formally signed by either government, restoration work will be completed on the Ahmed mosque in Akhaltsikhe, and a new Aziz mosque will be built in Batumi, after its predecessor burnt down last century.

The patriarchate is unhappy because the mosques in Georgia will be under the "ownership" of Muslim organizations, while Georgian sites in Turkey remain under Turkish control, with some Georgian consultation. They call the deal "unfair", especially since UNESCO dictates that it is the responsibility of every state to protect the cultural heritage on its territory – therefore, Turkey should need no such deal in order to restore Georgian churches. The Patriarchate believes that such an agreement was unnecessary.

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Turkish Boy Pledges to Suffer for Christ Despite School Beatings

A 12-year-old boy from Turkey whose family converted to Christianity has been beaten and abused by both classmates and teachers after revealing his newfound faith, but the boy says he is happy to suffer for Christ.

Hussein, whose last name was not revealed in the CBN persecution report that shared his story, invoked the anger of his school by wearing a silver cross necklace to school. Christians are a distinct minority in Turkey – the CIA World Factbook reveals that Muslims make up 99.8 percent of the near-80 million population, while Christians and Jews account for only 0.2 percent.

It is not uncommon for Christians in the country to be targeted for their beliefs, but few are as outspoken and as open about their religion as Hussein.

"It's not the physical cross. It's the meaning of the cross that is important. It is a beautiful thing," the boy explained in the report. "I wanted people to ask me about it and then I could tell them about Christ."

As Hussein began going with his father, Hakeem, to church and started wearing his cross at school, his classmates began spitting on him, calling him names and physically abusing him.

"The boy grabbed me by the arm, squeezed my hand, and yelled, 'I'm going to shoot you if you tell about this!'" Hussein shared of one of the attacks.
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Will the Malatya massacre be also covered up after Dink?

When I first heard the final verdict on the Hrant Dink murder case, a couple of thoughts crossed my mind. I thought the case had been completely covered up.
The court delivered such a terrible judgment, in which they went so far as to say that there was no “organization” behind this murder. This verdict was the worst of the worst that the court could ever deliver in this case. Does this mark a turning point in dealing with deep state-affiliated cases, or was it incidental?

Not only did I think all this, but I was also seriously concerned with other future developments that could occur in other cases, specifically the Malatya massacre case, in which three missionaries were barbarically killed in Malatya in 2007. We have been waiting for a second indictment in this case for a very long time. As you know, this case continued like the Hrant Dink case for a long time, focusing on a few hitmen without gaining any insight into the identities of the real perpetrators behind the murders. Then, last year help came from an Ergenekon prosecutor, Zekeriya Öz, who acted on information given to him by a “secret witness” who worked for gendarmerie. This secret witness told prosecutor Öz that he was a gendarmerie officer who had infiltrated the Protestant community upon the orders of his superiors. He even became a pastor. Upon a second order from a gendarmerie commander, he appeared on TV on Feb. 28, 2005 and explained how he had become “enlightened” about the evil in the activities of Protestants in Turkey, so had decided to become Muslim. He was very popular during this time, appearing on TV stations one after another, warning Turkish society about “missionaries” and about their terrible intentions in Turkey. This was, of course, a part of a huge anti-Christian campaign by Ergenekon circles. Luckily, gendarmerie sergeant, İlker Çınar, also gave other information to Öz, who then decided to arrest the former Malatya gendarmerie commander and other gendarmerie officers. Öz also ordered police to carry out searches of the homes of theology professors who were appearing on TV channels with Çınar and conducting a hate campaign against Christians.

Çınar explained that he was receiving a salary from the Malatya gendarmerie, which was quite active in anti-Christian campaigns across the country. Çınar also gave some specific details on how the Malatya gendarmerie had prepared the groundwork for the Malatya massacre.

As you know Öz was “promoted” and lost contact with the Ergenekon file. Following this, an İstanbul prosecutor sent all these investigation files to a Malatya prosecutor who had been working on this file for a long time. When I talked to him three or four months ago, he told me he was going to introduce a second indictment in the Malatya massacre case that would uncover the whole network behind the massacre. However, I also learnt that the Malatya massacre file was taken from him recently and given to another prosecutor who had prepared the Kurdish Communities’ Union (KCK) indictment before. I am now seriously concerned by the possibility that this second indictment will never be delivered or that it will be very weak. We will see what happens.

If there is no serious policy change, the second indictment in the Malatya massacre should introduce fairly new angles, from which we will be able to gain new perspectives to understand all the other attacks on Christians in the last decade. I also strongly believe that if we could get a proper second indictment in the Malatya case, it will have a serious effect on the Dink case and it will also force the prosecutors and judges to look at the case files from a different perspective.

Will Turkey progress in uncovering the real network behind the murders in the past? The Malatya massacre case and this second indictment will be a turning point in this struggle. We will soon see how it unfolds.
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Murders of Turkey’s non-Muslims await illumination

In recent years, Turkey has been shaken by the murders of a number of prominent non-Muslims.
Some of their court cases received more attention than others, but lawyers suspect they might all be related. One such case was the murder of Catholic priest Andrea Santoro, who was killed in 2006 by a 16-year-old ultranationalist in his church in the Black Sea province of Trabzon. The Santoro case was completed with lightning speed.Then came the murder of Hrant Dink, the editor-in-chief of the İstanbul-based Turkish-Armenian Agos weekly.

The hitman was again an ultranationalist teenager. The court sentenced one suspect to life while acquitting all suspects of organized crime charges in the January 2007 murder. The high-profile case is expected to go to the Supreme Court of Appeals. After that, in April 2007, three Protestant missionaries were brutally murdered, bound to chairs, tortured and stabbed at the Zirve Publishing House in the eastern province of Malatya before their throats were slit. The publishing house printed Bibles and Christian literature.

In 2010, Catholic bishop Luigi Padovese, who led Father Santoro’s funeral service in 2007, was also brutally killed by his driver and bodyguard in the Mediterranean port of İskenderun in southern Turkey. The hearing of the case will be on Feb. 22, but the case has a low profile.

Ercan Eriş, the lawyer for the Roman Catholic Apostolic Vicariate of Anatolia, said the family of Bishop Padovese is not willing to pursue the case, just like the family of Father Santoro.

“I observe the hearings of the case on behalf of the church. We tried so hard to obtain formal permission from the family to represent them in order to pursue the case, but they are not interested in that. Therefore, the case is in the hands of the public prosecutor,” he said.

Eriş also said the reason behind the family’s unwillingness is totally based on the theological teaching of “forgiveness.” “Based on my previous experience, I can say their decision is related to their beliefs because in several other cases of attacks against churches and religious leaders, priests and churches have never filed official complaints,” he added.

However, things might change in the course of the case if new evidence emerges, just like in the case of the Malatya missionaries.

When Dink was killed five years ago, almost no one realized there might have been some links between the Dink, Santoro and Malatya murders except human rights lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz, who said this was the beginning of a pattern.

“We later found out about the Cage plan and learned how those involved in the Ergenekon gang had planned and carried out their attacks and their campaigns of intimidation against non-Muslims.
Murders of Turkey’s non-Muslims await illumination

Tens of Thousands Mark Journalist's Death

Tens of thousands of protesters marked the fifth anniversary of a Turkish-Armenian journalist's murder on Thursday as outrage continues to grow over a trial that failed to shed light on alleged official negligence or even collusion.

Human rights activists placed red carnations on the spot in Istanbul where Hrant Dink was gunned down in broad daylight outside of his minority Agos newspaper office by a nationalist teenage gunman.

The case highlights Turkey's uneasy relationship with its ethnic and religious minorities, including at least 60,000 Armenian Christians. Many people carried black banners that read: "We are all Hrant, we are all Armenian," and some chanted "Turkey will be a grave for fascism."

Tens of thousands marched for justice, a call shared by Turkish leaders and leading businessmen who expressed unease over this week's sentencing of one man, Yasin Hayal, to life in prison for masterminding the killing, while another 17 were acquitted of charges of acting under a terrorist organization's orders. The court neglected to issue a verdict about a 19th suspect.

"The verdict is tragic and is weighing heavily on the conscience of everyone in Turkey," Rober Koptas, Dink's son-in-law and editor-in-chief of Agos, told AP television in an interview.

The gunman, Ogun Samast, was sentenced to nearly 23 years in prison in July by a separate juvenile court.

Umit Boyner, the head of Turkey's influential industrialists' association TUSIAD, said the court's decision had "shocked" the public.

"What we solidly see in this trial process is that the belief in justice has been shaken and weaknesses in our justice system have been revealed," he said.
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Turkey’s Greek minority to open school on Gökçeada

The Ministry of Education has given permission to the Greek community to open a primary school on Gökçeada (Imbros), an island in the Aegean Sea off the coast of Çanakkale province.
Laki Vingas, elected representative of non-Muslim foundations at the Council of the General Assembly of the Directorate General for Foundations (VGM), was quoted in the Milliyet daily on Thursday as saying that the ministry gave permission verbally and that the Greeks of Gökçeada can start the process of opening a Greek school on the island.

Turkey's Greek schools are on the verge of closure because the Greek community's population is close to the point of extinction. There are estimated to be only 180-200 Turkish citizens of Greek origin on Gökçeada, and the number of Greek students expected to attend a Greek school on the island is expected to be low. But Vingas said that even if there are 10 students, the initiative would be important because it gives hopes for the future of the Greek community in Turkey.

Even though the Greek population in Turkey was no less than 100,000 in the 1930s, tension between Turkey and Greece has greatly affected their survival in Turkey. Following the İstanbul Riots of Sept. 6-7, 1955 and the 1964 deportation of roughly 12,000 ethnic Greeks without Turkish citizenship, the Greek population has been in constant decline. By 1966, the Greek population in İstanbul was reduced to less than 30,000 and it has been diminishing ever since. The population of Turkey's Greek community is estimated to be around 3,000 today.
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Anger in Istanbul over Dink murder trial

Ruling in Hrant Dink murder case does not shed light on real instigators

A Turkish court sentences Yasin Hayal to life in prison for instigating the assassination, but does not attribute any role to the terrorist organisation responsible for the murder of Fr Andrea Santoro in Trabzon and three Christians in Malatya. The ‘deep state’ is responsible for crimes designed to destabilise the country.
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Meleklere Kulak Verin - Turkish Christmas Music CD Available

The first Turkish Christian Christmas music CD is available to listen to and to purchase via iTunes. Good music and a great way to support Christian work in Turkey!
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Five myths about anti-Christian persecution

"In many countries, Christians are deprived of fundamental rights and sidelined from public life," he said. "In other countries, they endure violent attacks against their churches and their homes."

French intellectual Régis Debray, a veteran leftist who fought alongside Che Guevara in Bolivia, has observed that anti-Christian persecution unfolds squarely in the political blind spot of the West -- the victims are usually "too Christian" to excite the left, "too foreign" to interest the right.

As a contribution towards erasing that blind spot, let's debunk five common myths about anti-Christian persecution.

Myth No. 1: Christians are vulnerable only where they're a minority - According to October 2010 data from the Pew Forum, Christians face harassment in a staggering total of 133 countries, representing more than two-thirds of all nations on earth, including many where Christians are a strong majority.

Myth No. 2: It's all about Islam - Christians suffer from a slew of other forces, including:
Ultra-nationalism
Hindu radicalism
Buddhist radicalism
State-imposed security policies

Myth No. 3: No one saw it coming - Turkey offers an example. On June 3, 2010, Bishop Luigi Padovese, an Italian Capuchin and the Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia, was murdered by his driver, who claimed he had a private revelation identifying Padovese as the anti-Christ. Since the driver had been receiving psychiatric treatment, Turkish authorities announced there was no "political motive" and declared the case closed.
What that failed to acknowledge was the general climate in which a madman might get the idea that a Catholic bishop was evil.
Shortly after Padovese arrived in 2004, negotiations began toward Turkey's membership in the EU, inflaming nationalist resentments. Between that point and Padovese's death in 2010, a clear pattern of menace emerged to the tiny Christian minority (150,000 out of 72 million):
In 2005, polemical mini-dramas about the Crusades aired on Turkish television, which led to rocks being tossed through the windows of Christian churches, garbage being left on the doorsteps of churches and verbal abuse of Christian clergy in the streets.
Also in 2005, a sensational book was published by a Turk named Ilker Cinar, who claimed to be a former Protestant who had returned to Islam, titled I Was a Missionary -- the Code is Decoded. He claimed that Christians were working with Kurdish separatists and wanted to destroy the nation.
On Jan. 8, 2006, a Protestant church leader in Adana was beaten by five young men.
On Feb. 5, 2006, an Italian Catholic missionary named Fr. Andrea Santoro was shot to death in the city of Trabzon by a 16-year-old shouting "Allahu Akhbar." (Padovese celebrated the funeral Mass.)
In the weeks after Santoro's murder, Slovenian Fr. Martin Kmetec was thrown into a garden and threatened with death in the port city of Izmir, while French Fr. Pierre Brunissen was stabbed with a knife in the Black Sea port of Samsun.
On Jan. 19, 2007, a prominent Turkish Christian of Armenian descent, Hrant Dink, was assassinated in Istanbul.
On April 18, 2007, three Christian missionaries who ran a small publishing operation were murdered in Malatya.
In 2009, Turkish media published reports about the "Cage Plan," a scheme hatched by ultra-nationalists in tandem with elements of the military to destabilize the state through attacks on Christians, Armenians, Kurds, Jews and Alevis.
In that context, does it really make sense to style Padovese's murder as an isolated act? Or is it more accurate to say that even if no one could have predicted the precise time and target of the next attack, Turkey had allowed a perilous climate to fester?

Myth No. 4: It's only persecution if the motives are religious - today's risks are hardly limited to classic instances of martyrdom, but a wide variety of circumstances in which Christians are in harm's way. Even if they're not attacked for religious motives, their reasons for being in that spot are usually rooted in their faith.

Myth No. 5: Anti-Christian persecution is a right-wing issue - The truth is that persecution against Christians, ideologically speaking, is an equal-opportunity enterprise.
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