MURDER IN ANATOLIA - European Stability Initiative - ESI

– I –
CAST OF CHARACTERS
The victims (killed 18 April 2007)
Aydin Geske Yuksel
Necati Aydin was a Christian convert from Izmir. He moved to Malatya with his wife and two
children in November 2003 and became general director of the Christian publishing house Zirve.
Since 2005 he had worked as priest of the small Protestant community in Malatya.
Tilmann Geske, a German missionary, worked as a pastor of a Protestant Free church in Germany. In
1997 he moved to Adana (southern Turkey) and in 2002 to Malatya (with his German wife and three
children). He taught English, translated, and preached in the local community.
Ugur Yuksel was from an Alevi family in Elazig (a province east of Malatya). He studied in Western
Turkey (Izmit), where he came in contact with the local Protestant community and converted. Since
2005 he had worked with Necati Aydin for Zirve Publishing in Malatya.
The main suspects (trial since November 2007)
Gunaydin Aral
On 18 April 2007 five men raided the office of the Christian publishing house Zirve and killed Necati
Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske. They were arrested on the spot.
Emre Gunaydin is the alleged leader of the group. He was born in 1988 in Malatya. According to the
other suspects, Emre Gunaydin had close relations with the Malatya police and his family had links to
well-known ultranationalist organised crime figures.
Salih Gurler, Hamit Ceker and Cuma Ozdemir prepared for the university entrance exam. They
met Emre Gunaydin in early 2007 and claim that he intimidated and threatened them to take part in
the crime. Abuzer Yildirim met Emre back in 2005. He had worked at the Malatya cotton mill prior
to the killing.
Varol Bulent Aral, who described himself as a destitute day labourer, met Emre Gunaydin in fall
2006. Emre testified that Aral told him about the threat of missionary activities and that if Emre did
something to stop them “we will guarantee you state support.” Aral‟s personal notebook contained the
phone numbers of ultra-nationalist lawyer Kemal Kerincsiz (see below). In October 2010 two
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