Mixed feelings at Malatya massacre memorial

Mixed feelings at Malatya massacre memorial - Turkish Daily News Apr 22, 2008

Hundreds of members of Turkey's Protestant community gathered Sunday afternoon to remember Necati Aydın, Uğur Yüksel and Tilman Geske, the three Christians who were brutally murdered in Malatya in April of 2007.

But a year after the Malatya killings the Turkish Christian community still yearns for freedom to express and live its faith in a tolerant Turkey.

“I knew Necati, Uğur and Tilmann, and especially Necati very well,” said Zekai Tanyar, chairman of the Turkish Protestant Churches Alliance, during the memorial service. “I laugh bitterly when I hear the unfair lies told about them. This is the only crime my three brothers committed: Their belief in God, following Jesus and telling people about God's message of love and hope for people.”

At the gathering that brought together members of the Turkish protestant church from all over Turkey as well as representatives of the Armenian, Catholic, and Orthodox churches the feelings were a mixture of sorrow for the loss of the three, joy for the re-union of the Christian community and hope. Yet there was a lingering sense of disappointment especially among Turkish Christians about the continued lack of tolerance toward them for their choice of faith, said Tanyar.

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