MURDER IN ANATOLIA - European Stability Initiative - ESI

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another human rights lawyer close to the Dink family and a leading voice in the debate on
Turkey‟s reconciliation with its past. 104
The lawyers representing the victims‟ families did not see this as an ordinary murder case; as
far as they were concerned, much more was at stake.
b. “They are just puppets”
Having worked for the Association of Protestant Churches as a lawyer, Orhan Kemal Cengiz
wrote the first report commissioned by the association back in 2002. 105 In it, he examined the
discrimination of Christians in Turkey. 106 He later wrote a handbook on proper
documentation and litigation of torture cases, a manual on combating torture for judges and
prosecutors, and a booklet on freedom of thought, conscience and religion. 107 In 2003, he set
up the Human Rights Agenda Association (HRAA). 108 All throughout, he defended the rights
of the Greek Orthodox community, of conscientious objectors, of Turkish Armenians, and of
Kurds not only in court rooms but also in his newspaper columns. 109
For Cengiz, the Malatya case was personal. As he wrote in his first op-ed following the
murder, “Necati Aydin had been a client of mine for the last seven years and I know very
well what a nice, lovely person he was.” At the same time, Cengiz viewed the crime in
Malatya as a turning point for Turkish society as a whole:
“Turkey, more than at any other time in its history, is under a dangerous threat ... This
threat is Turkey‟s rising intolerance and inability to accept others, more than at any time
before … We know this won‟t be the last incident. But we hope with all our hearts that it
ends here.” 110
In another column, published on 1 May 2007, he wrote:
“For a long time I had been expecting that something would happen … There had been
signs. Christians were beaten, their churches were stoned and set on fire and they had
received threats every day. Every single day there was news about the treacherous plans
of missionaries in the local and national newspapers and on TV stations … For a long
period of time the seeds of intolerance, racism and enmity against Christianity have been
sown in Turkey. Now those seeds are being harvested one by one. The murder of Father
Santoro, Hrant Dink, and the Malatya massacre are in a sense connected.”
Cengiz pointed out that the security forces should have been able to prevent these crimes:
104 ESI on Fethiye Cetin, http://www.esiweb.org/index.php?lang=en&id=311&film_ID=10&slide_ID=5.
105 Homepage of Association of Protestant Churches (Turkey) http://www.protestankiliseler.org/.
106 Orhan Kemal Cengiz, “Rights Violations Experienced by Protestants in Turkey Evaluated in Light of Human
Rights Law”, published by the Association of Protestant Churches (Turkey), 2002.
107 See Orhan Kemal Cengiz, Turkey and the World Around It, Liberte Publishing, July 2008, p. v-vi.
108 Homepage of the Human Rights Agenda Association http://www.rightsagenda.org/index.html.
109 For a collection of his articles see rhan Kemal Cengiz: “Turkey and the world around it – from a democracy
and human rights perspective”, 2008. Cengiz writes a regular column at the English language daily Today’s
Zaman. www.todayszaman.com All his articles are on his facebook page.
110 Orhan Kemal Cengiz, “After Malatya Massacre”, Human Rights Agenda Association, 27 April 2007,
http://www.rightsagenda.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=300:aliasafter-malatyamassacre&catid=86:aliasracism-and-intolerance&Itemid=125.
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