Turkish Military Planned Attacks on Christians

Turkish Military Planned Attacks on Christians | AssyriaTimes.com

Senior Turkish military officers had made extensive plans to terrorize non-Muslims in Turkey. In the large Ergenekon[1] scandal recently a well-planned terrorist operation was revealed. The operation which is called "Kafes Operasyonu Eylem Planı", in English meaning "the execution of the cage - operation" was to eliminate the remaining small group of Christians living in Turkey today.

The plan was revealed when police arrested Levent Bektas, a major in the Turkish army. The evidence seized reveals more than 27 officers and senior military officers involved in the conspiracy against Christians.

In order to identify key persons among the Christians and then kill them, this terrorist network has broken into a Greek Church congregation compound and stolen computers. The purpose of this was to access the congregation’s member lists.

"When our office was emptied of computers and files, church members were very concerned. Since the murder of the monk Santoro, the journalist Hrant Dink and the brutal murder of three publishing workers in Malatya, Christians are living in constant fear", said lawyer Kezban Hatemi, representing the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Constantinople (Istanbul).

On 28 November 2007, the Syriac Orthodox monk Daniel Savci in Turabdin was kidnapped in southeastern Turkey. The monk resides in the St. Gabriel monastery, which Turkish authorities are trying to confiscate. A few days later the monk was found beaten. Shortly after, the police arrested some village guards, a state-sanctioned militia subordinate to the Turkish army, for the kidnapping. Many people with insight into the situation interpret the kidnapping as a direct threat to the remaining Assyrians in Turabdin.

Christians were attacked across the country. To implement the strategic attacks, the country's Christian population was mapped out and 939 key persons from different parts of the country were identified as potential targets.

The fully detailed operation consists of four phases: preparation, spreading propaganda, shape opinion and execute.

The newspaper Taraf, which has been able to access the information, has published several articles about this. On its website www.taraf.com.tr it is described in detail how the plan to attack the Christians was to be implemented.

Below are some points that constitute the plan's main lines.

* Christians are mapped
* Famous and wealthy Christian businessmen kidnapped
* Systematic fires and looting of Christian businesses
* The Armenian newspaper AGOS be subjected to several explosions
* Murder patrols executing attacks against selected individuals
* Christian cemeteries subjected to explosions
* Churches and institutions belonging to Christians subjected to explosions
* Put the blame on imaginary militant organizations

Court Seeks Help to Link Murders in Turkey to ‘Deep State’

Court Seeks Help to Link Murders in Turkey to ‘Deep State’

Judges and prosecutors in the trial regarding the murder of three Christians in Malatya, Turkey, on Friday renewed their request for help from the Istanbul High Criminal Court as reports mounted linking the slayings to top gendarmerie officials.

The Malatya court judges overseeing hearings on the murders of Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske requested that the Istanbul criminal court establish whether the case was linked to the controversial cabal of military, political and other influential figures, Ergenekon, which has allegedly been trying to overthrow the government by upsetting Turkey's peace.

For the last two and a half years prosecuting lawyers have established the case that Emre Gunaydin, Salih Gurler, Cuma Ozdemir, Hamit Ceker and Abuzer Yildirim, who were caught at the murder scene on April 18, 2007, were not acting independently but were incited by Turkey's "deep state," an expression of which is Ergenekon.

Religious dispute in Turkey

The Alevis are the largest religious minority in Turkey, it is hoped that they might help win freedoms for all religious minorities here.

Religious dispute in Turkey | News from Armenia - NEWS.am

Last week token visit of Turkish President Abdullah Gul to Tunceli (province in the Eastern Anatolia region, Turkey) worship house did not produce a strong effect, as thousands gathered in Kadikoy district of Istanbul calling the Government to respect their rights, Turkish Hurriyet informs.

Thousands of Alevis took to Istanbul streets on Nov. 8 demanding to “abolish the Religious Affairs Directorate, eliminate compulsory religious-education classes, recognize cemevis as legitimate houses of worship, and transform the Madimak Hotel in Sivas, where 33 Alevis were killed by a fundamentalist mob, into a museum,” website reads.

Gul’s visit was labeled “insincere” by Alevis, considered a liberal sect of Shia Islam. “Many presidents have visited cemevis, but what difference does it make when they are not recognized as legal houses of worship?” Hurriyet quotes Ali Balkiz, Chairman of the Alevi-Bektashi Federation, as saying at the rally.

“We cannot make our voice heard through the media and columnists. It is only through these mass movements that awareness can be raised among the public and the Alevi voice can be heard. A year after our last rally, nothing has changed. We will continue to rally until our demands are met. What some call the ‘Alevi issue’ we call a ‘political disgrace,” Balkiz said.

The Alevi is a religious, cultural community in Turkey numbering over tens of million people. Alevism is considered one of Shia Islam branches and their rituals are conducted basically in Turkish, and some in Kurdish.

Muslims, Christians pray together in Polonezköy

Muslims, Christians pray together in Polonezköy - Hurriyet Daily News and Economic Review

Poles and Turks greeted each other warmly as the priest at the small church in Polonezköy, a village on Istanbul’s Asian outskirts settled by Polish emigrants in the 19th century, invited worshippers to exchange the peace during the All Saints’ Day mass on Nov. 1.

Muslim Turks participating in a Christian ritual was “normal for Polonezköy,” an elderly inhabitant of the town said. The priest conducted the mass in both Polish and Turkish so that everyone could participate. After the mass, the congregants commemorated the deceased at a nearby cemetery with flowers while the priest blessed the gravestones with holy water, just as he would in Poland.

Turkish Police Official Axed amid Allegations in Murders

Compass Direct News

The head of Turkey’s police intelligence department was removed on Friday (Oct. 16) amid allegations that he failed to prevent the murder of the Christian editor of an Armenian weekly and the slayings of three Christians in this city in southeastern Turkey.

Ramazan Akyurek is also accused of withholding evidence in those cases and improperly investigating the murder of a Catholic priest in 2006.

Turkey Christians disappointed: government won’t protect them

Turkey Christians disappointed: government won’t protect them

Hopes for improvements in the rights of religious communities in Turkey in 2009 have once more come to nothing, notes Otmar Oehring of the German Catholic Charity Mission in a commentary for Forum 18 News Service.

Alevi Muslims broke off formal talks with the government over denial of their rights. A high-profile lunch with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in August 2009, attended by five religious minority leaders, including Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, was followed by a visit to two Greek Orthodox sites. But no concrete improvements ensued.

Intolerance promoted by Turkey's mainstream media has markedly reduced, but local and ultranationalist newspapers and websites still promote such intolerance. No verdict was reached in 2009 in the long-running trial over the 2007 murder of three Protestants in Malatya, or over the long-running attempts to prosecute two Protestants accused of "defaming Islam". Dr Oehring argues for a fundamental change in the attitudes of both society and the government.

Lawyer Calls Turkish Christians' Trial a 'Scandal'

Lawyer Calls Turkish Christians' Trial a 'Scandal' | Christianpost.com

After three prosecution witnesses testified yesterday that they didn’t even know two Christians on trial for “insulting Turkishness and Islam,” a defense lawyer called the trial a “scandal.”

Speaking after yesterday’s hearing in the drawn-out trial, defense attorney Haydar Polat said the case’s initial acceptance by a state prosecutor in northwestern Turkey was based only on a written accusation from the local gendarmerie headquarters unaccompanied by any documentation.

“It’s a scandal,” Polat said. “It was a plot, a planned one, but a very unsuccessful plot, as there is no evidence.”

Turkey may remove Koran class age limit

Turkey may remove Koran class age limit - UPI.com

The Turkish minister of labor and social security says the country's law against children under 12 taking courses on the Koran may be abolished.

Minister Faruk Celik said placing an age restriction on classes about the sacred book of Muslims was not appropriate, Bianet reported Wednesday. Under the Turkish Constitution, religious education in schools is compulsory .

"Apart from that, religious education and teaching is up to the individual preference and to the request of the minor's legal guardian," he said of the constitutional requirement. "There is no such thing as age limitation."

The construction of the mosque, dedicated to Jesus Christ, is launched in Diyarbakir

Turkey: The construction of the mosque, dedicated to Jesus Christ, is launched in Diyarbakir - Ferghana.Ru Information agency, Moscow

The construction of the mosque, dedicated to Jesus Christ, is launched in the south-east of Turkey in the city of Diyarbakir, Blagowest-info reports with the reference to Turkish mass media, noting that «thereby, Muslim community wants to make goodwill step towards the followers of other religions».

There was big Christian community in Diyarbakir in the past (mainly Armenian and Syrian Orthodox Churches). In 1915 this community was exposed to cruel persecution and nearly disappeared in the following years.

Christian tombs desecrated in an historic Istanbul cemetery

TURKEY Christian tombs desecrated in an historic Istanbul cemetery - Asia News

A Christian cemetery was desecrated in Istanbul. Unknown person or persons broke 90 tombstones that bore the sign of the cross and the name of the deceased. The incident occurred a few days ago in the historic cemetery of Valukli near the ancient Valukli Monastery, the only monastery dedicated to Our Lady still open in Istanbul, located outside the ancient walls of Theodosius, and which five non-resident nuns care for.

Istanbul’s Christian cemeteries have been desecrated on a number of occasions in the past 20 years. The latest outrage brought back memories of the tragic events of September 1955 when churches, cemeteries and properties owned by Istanbul’s Orthodox community were desecrated and destroyed in a pogrom. Eventually dubbed the September pogrom, the event was the brainchild of Turkey’s political-bureaucratic-military establishment, known here as Derin Devlet or ‘deep state’.

Turkey says okay to Christian worship in birthplace of St. Paul

Anglican Journal: Turkey says okay to Christian worship in birthplace of St. Paul

The government of Turkey has agreed to extend indefinitely permission for Christian worship at an historic church in Tarsus, the birthplace of St. Paul, says the head of the country’s Roman Catholic bishops’ conference.

“I’m confident the church in Tarsus could soon change from being a museum to a centre of spiritual pilgrimage,” said Bishop Luigi Padovese, after the close of worldwide commemorations to mark the 2,000th anniversary of the birth of St. Paul.

Turkish PM promises reform to religious minorities

Turkish PM promises reform to religious minorities - washingtonpost.com

"It is now for us essential to embrace all 71.5 million of this nation's people in respect and love," he said, repeating his opposition to ethnic nationalism and saying his government kept an equal distance to all faiths.

"Are there shortcomings in implementation? There are. We will overcome these together in this struggle. I believe this democratic initiative will change many things in this country," he said in comments reported by broadcaster CNN Turk and confirmed by patriarchate official.

Turkish PM meets with Christian, Jewish minority leaders in Buyukada

Still no Protestant representation at these meetings.
WORLD BULLETIN- TURKEY, MUSLIMS, ISLAM, BALKANS, CAUCASUS [ Turkish PM meets with Christian, Jewish minority leaders in Buyukada ]

Turkey's PM Erdogan met with religious minority group delagates, accompanied with five cabinet ministers in a small island of Istanbul, Buyukada.

Everyone may be proud of own nationality in Turkey: Turkish prime-minister

Think we should hold him to this?


TREND: Everyone may be proud of own nationality in Turkey: Turkish prime-minister

"Everyone can be proud of own nationality in Turkey. Religious and ethnic discrimination has never existed and will never be present in Turkey, Erdogan added.

Turkey is the native land for everyone, who lives here, Erdogan said.

Turkish man assaulted for missionary activities

Turkish man assaulted for missionary activities < German news | Expatica Germany

A 24-year-old street seller assaulted a man on grounds he was proselytizing Christianity, holding a knife to his throat in downtown Istanbul before surrendering to police, newspapers reported Tuesday.

The incident, the latest in a string of religiously-motivated attacks in Turkey in recent years, happened Monday on a busy avenue in Istanbul's Kadikoy district, before the eyes of dozens of passers-by.

The assailant -- identified as 24-year-old pirate CD vendor Yasin Karasu -- wrapped a Turkish flag around the head of Ismail Aydin, 35, put a knife to his throat and shouted "This is Turkey, you cannot distribute Bibles here," the Haberturk newspaper said.

The stand-off lasted for 20 minutes before the police persuaded the assailant to surrender, according to the Sabah daily.

Karasu later told the police he was angry with Aydin for converting to Christianity and engaging in missionary activities, Sabah said, while the Vatan daily suggested the assailant was mentally disturbed.