On 18 April, German Tilman Ekkehart Geske and two Turkish citizen, Necati Aydin and Ugur Yüksel were murdered at their office, the "Zirve" Publications, in Malatya, the south-east of Turkey. The trial of the murder suspects will begin in the next days at a Heavy Penal Court in Malatya.

There are twelve defendants in the court case, five of them in detention.

Three life sentences each demanded 

They are accused of being members of a nameless organisation and of killing three people. The prosecution is demanding three life sentences each for defendants Emre Günaydin, Abuzer Yildirim, Hamit Ceker, Cuma Özdemir and Salih Güler for founding an armed group, being members of such a group and killing people in an organised manner.

The other seven defendants are accused of aiding and abetting the armed group.

Previous threats 

There has been criticism that security forces did not do enough to prevent the murders. Malatya Governor Halil Ibrahim Dasöz had replied to these criticisms by saying, "There was no protection asked for."

Because the publishing house published and distributed bibles, its founder Martin de Lange had made a statement on 17 February 2005, saying that the company had been targeted and threatened by nationalists before.

Pastor Fikret Böcek of the Izmir Protestant Church said that of the 22 Christian families living in Malatya, 15 had left the city and would not return.

Hate discourses against "missionaries" 

The excuse of "missionary activity" has often been used in Turkey to excuse discrimination, violence and even murders. Hate discourses often use the word. For instance, Prof. Dr. Alpaslan Isikli, when talking at a Atatürkist Thought Association meeting in Ankara, had said, referring to the government and Prime Minister Erdogan:

"He said that minarets were our bayonets. Then the co-governing of crusaders were accepted. Meanwhile, in Iraq no minaret has been left standing. Christian missionary activity has gone. The appetites of those who are trying to turn the Orthodox Patriarchy in Istanbul into a duchy have become inflated."

"They have loaded Islam with such a repulsive image that some of our citizens have come to the point of streaming into the streets and shouting 'We are all Armenian' [here he is presumably referring to the funeral procession of murdered journalist Hrant Dink, in which placards reading 'We are all Hrant Dink, We are all Armenian' were carried]."

"Others are separatists who are pretending to defend the rights of our citizens in the South-East." (NZ/AG)