MURDER IN ANATOLIA - European Stability Initiative - ESI

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2006, a lawyer, Alparslan Arslan 18 , stormed into the Council of State (Danistay, Turkey‟s
highest administrative court) in Ankara shouting “I am God‟s soldier, God is great!” 19 Arslan
shot at judges sitting in their chamber, killing one of them. 20 Arslan later stated that he was
motivated by a court ruling from February 2006 when the judges had decided not to promote
a primary school teacher because she wore a headscarf outside class. 21 On the day of the
judge‟s funeral in Ankara on 18 May 2006, tens of thousands of people demonstrated against
the AKP government which they accused of abetting such attacks. The presiding judges of
the most important courts (Constitutional, Council of State, Court of Appeals), joined by the
president of Turkey‟s Bar Association and state prosecutors, demonstrated at Ataturk‟s
mausoleum. Thousands joined the demonstrations, chanting “Turkey won‟t become Iran, the
murderer is the government” and “Turkey is secular and will stay so.” 22 “A bullet for
secularism”, ran the headline in Milliyet, a Turkish daily. 23 In September 2006, Der Spiegel
asserted that “a deep chasm is opening up in Turkish society” between a secular and modern
upper class on the one hand and “fanatical masses” on the other. Often, the author noted,
“one spark is enough to set the fanatical fire alight.” 24
In 2007, things went from bad to worse. On 19 January Hrant Dink, founder and editor-inchief
of the weekly Agos and one of the advocates of Turkish-Armenian rapprochement, was
assassinated in front of his office in Istanbul‟s Sisli district. His murderer, like that of Father
Andrea Santoro, was a 16 year old young man from the Black Sea town of Trabzon. 25 Then
another gruesome attack on Christians took place in April 2007 in the Central Anatolian city
of Malatya. 26
On 18 April at around 12.30 pm Gokhan Talas, a graphic designer, arrived with his wife at
the office of Zirve, a Christian publishing house in Malatya, which he shared with Necati
Aydin, a Turkish priest, and Ugur Yuksel, both Turkish converts to Christianity. Trying to
enter the premises, Talas and his wife found the door locked from the inside. They became
suspicious and called the police. Having arrived on the scene, police officers entered the
office to find three men – Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Ekkehart Geske, a
German missionary – in a pool of blood, covered with stab wounds, their throats slit, their
18 Milliyet, “Dindar ve ulkucu bir kisi” [A religious and fascist person], 18 May 2006,
http://www.milliyet.com.tr/2006/05/18/guncel/gun01a.html. In Turkey female civil servants are not allowed to
wear the headscarf at work. This particular teacher took her headscarf off before entering the school property
but wore it outside the school.
19 Hurriyet, “Allah‟in askeriyim” dedi vurdu [He said I am God‟s soldier and shot], 18 May 2006,
http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=4432607&tarih=2006-05-18.
20 The name of the judge was Mustafa Yucel Ozbilgin.
21 The Sunday Times, “Judge shot dead after blocking promotion of teacher who wore Muslim headscarf”, 18
May 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article720515.ece.
22 Hurriyet, “Ata‟ya sikayet” [complaint to Ataturk], 19 May 2006,
http://hurarsiv.hurriyet.com.tr/goster/haber.aspx?id=4438801&tarih=2006-05-19 and BBC, “Turks protest over
judge shooting”, 18 May 2006, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4993444.stm.
23 Cover page printed fully in Mehmet Altan, Puslu Demokrasi, Etkilesim Yayinlari, 2009p. 16.
24 Dilek Zaptcioglu, “Goldenes Kreuz unter der Bluse“ [The golden cross under the blouse], Spiegel Online, 17
September 2006, http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/0,1518,437512,00.html.
25 ESI Briefing: “Turkey‟s Dark Side. Party Closures, conspiracies and the future of democracy”, 2 April 2008,
http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=156&document_ID=104. See also: Sarah Rainsford, “Turkey‟s
nationalist hotbed”, BBC, 1 March 2007, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6403813.stm. On nationalism in the
Black Sea region see: Radikal, “Papazini vuran kent: Trabzon“ [The city shooting its priest: Trabzon], 19
February 2006, http://www.radikal.com.tr/ek_haber.php?ek=r2&haberno=5559.
26 For a list of attacks in 2007 see the report prepared by the Association of Protestant Churches,
http://www.protestankiliseler.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1137&Itemid=459.
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