Young Muslims in Turkey Murder Three Christians
In a bold initiative Thursday, Pastor Ihsan Ozbek, chairman of the Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey, led a press conference broadcast live from Malatya by CNN-TURK and shown simultaneously on several other TV channels.
Flanked by the churches' legal representative, Orhan Kemal Cengiz, and Istanbul pastor Bedri Peker, Ihsan distributed a forthright press release to the Turkish media headlined, "A Horrible Brutality, But Not a Surprise."
"Yesterday, Turkey was buried in the darkness of the Middle Ages," Ozbek declared.
He compared the nation's ongoing conspiracy theories and missionary phobias to the witch-hunts of the Middle Ages.
"We know this will not be the last [martyr]. But with all our hearts we wish it would be the last," Ozbek said.
First Convert Martyrs
Wednesday's deadly attack was the first known martyrdom of Turkish converts from Islam since the founding of the Turkish Republic in 1923.
But it was the third tragic incident targeting Christians in Turkey in the past 15 months to spark major international media coverage. Last year an Italian Catholic priest was shot to death while kneeling in his church in the Black Sea port city of Trabzon.
This past January, a prominent Turkish journalist of Armenian Christian descent, Hrant Dink, was murdered in Istanbul.
Over the past three years, top government officials have been accused of fanning growing hostility against non-Muslims by openly criticizing Christian missionary activities. Local prosecutors and police authorities are often reluctant to pursue reported incidents of vandalism or threats against church buildings or personnel.
The last deadly attack targeting Turkish converts to Christianity took place in Gaziantep in 1997, when an extremist Islamist group bombed a Christian bookstand at a local fair, killing a small child and injuring many bystanders. The culprits were arrested and sentenced to heavy prison terms.
Copyright © 2007 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.
Related Elsewhere:
Other Christianity Today articles on Turkey are available on our site.
The Associated Press, The Times, Today's Zaman (Istanbul), and others also reported on this story.
More commentary and links are in the latest weblog.
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kemal
The murders of these innocent people are horrible. However, what Christian missionaries are doing in Turkey is unacceptable. They go to places where poor people live and promise them money if they convert. The two Turkish converts in this case were actually two mental patients who could not think for themselves. So what do the missionaries do? They find two mentally ill people and promise them the paradise in return for becoming converts. This is why Christian missionaries are not welcome in Turkey. Their tactics are too sleazy. Furthermore, Ataturk the founder of Turkey established Turkey on secular principles. He warned Turks the biggest danger to the young Turkish republic is religion. Christian missionaries please leave Turks alone. They have had enough problems with religious zealots already througout their history and no matter what you do you will have no major number of converts other than mentally sick who can't think for themselves.
Valentin
It is sad that Diocletian thinks like the peolpe from his homeland: what the state or the traditions of his country (or leading party) says is more important than what I, as a free person, I believe that is best and plausible for me to believe. Maybe Christianity is better than Islam, or better than Communism or Budhism or Confucianism. Or maybe the Islam or Communism is better that Christianity. Why should I have not the right to evaluate and choose; Why should the other dictate me what to believe? God would not ask me at the great Day of Judgement what the other people allowed me to believe; He would ask me why I did not follow the truth (and good), whatever this truth was. I lived in Romania, Diocletian, and I know what I say (probably as well as you know...).
Dn. Jason
On April 24th, the Armenian Christian community commemorated the 92nd anniversary of the genocide of 1.5 million Christian Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks in 1915. Many people wonder why the Armenian community still commemorates this event after 92 years. Last weeks gruesome killings were one reason why. It is hard to believe that Christianity Today could be so ignorant of the direct historical precident in Turkey for persecution, torcher and direct slaughter of the country's Christians. Armenians join together in praying for these martyrs for Christ, and ask Christians around the world to educate themselves on centuries of continued Turkish violence against Christians. How many people must be killed before we become motivated to demand responsiblity and change from our favorite Middle Eastern ally, Turkey?