Murders in the Zirve publishing house

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The murders at Zirve-Verlag ( Turkish Zirve Yayınevi katliamı ) took place on April 18, 2007 at Zirve-Verlag in the Turkish city ​​of Malatya . The Turkish pastor Necati Aydın, the Christian Uğur Yüksel and the German Tilmann Geske, all three employees of the Bible publishing house, were attacked and killed by five Islamist-religious fanatics. The perpetrators were Yunus Emre Günaydın and his four radical Islamic accomplices.

Sequence of events

Emre Günaydin, Cuma Özdemir (20), Hamit Ceker (19), Salih Gürler (20) and Abuzer Yildirim (19) attacked the Zirve publishing office in the Niyazi Misri district of Malatya on April 18, 2007 at around 1.30 p.m. The assassins locked the door from the inside, threatened Tilman Ekkehart Geske (46) and Necati Aydin (35) with knives, tied their hands and feet and tied their mouths. Ugur Yüksel (32) came to the office. The assassins pulled him in and tied his hands, feet and mouth. They killed all three people by cutting their throats. When the police came to the scene, the assassin Emre Günaydin panicked and jumped out the window. The other four attackers were arrested by the police in the office. Geske and Aydin reportedly died on the scene, Yüksel died in the hospital.

Victims of the massacre

Two of the victims, Necati Aydın (35) and Uğur Yüksel (32), were Turkish converts from the Islam . The third victim, Tilmann Geske (45), was a German citizen. Necati Aydın was an actor who played Jesus Christ in a theatrical production that the TURK-7 network aired over the Easter holidays .

Reactions

  • Frank-Walter Steinmeier , in his capacity as Federal Foreign Minister at the time, condemned the attacks. Everything will be done to fully investigate this crime and bring those responsible to justice.
  • "Missionary work is even more dangerous than terrorism and, unfortunately, is not considered a crime in Turkey," said Niyazi Güney, then head of department in the Ministry of Justice.
  • The massacre was protested by fans in a match between Malatyaspor and Gençlerbirliği .

Court hearings

Eleven suspects were arrested after the carnage. All suspects were adults between 19 and 20 years of age. The main suspect, Yunus Emre Günaydın, tried to jump out of the window to escape the police .

On February 13, 2008, Amnesty International issued an Urgent Action (UA) for Orhan Kemal Cengiz , a lawyer who was threatened because of his legal work. The human rights organization noted that threats against the human rights defender had increased since November 2007, when the trial against the suspects began. The actions ended when the authorities provided a bodyguard for the lawyer .

In 2011, further investigations began that resulted in a new 761-page indictment accusing 19 defendants of being responsible for the murders. The 3rd Chamber for Serious Crimes in Malatya accepted the indictment on June 22, 2012 and combined the two trials. Since the maximum length of pre-trial detention had been limited to 5 years, Emre Günaydın, Salih Gürler, Abuzer Yıldırım, Hamit Çeker and Cuma Özdemir were released from custody on March 7, 2014. By then, 92 negotiations had taken place, the last on February 24, 2014. On that day, the public prosecutor made his plea and the court adjourned to April 10, 2014.

On September 28, 2016, the court sentenced five of the perpetrators to three life sentences each. Two military men, including Emre Günaydın, were sentenced to 13 and 14 years in prison, respectively. The court acquitted 14 co-defendants because, in spite of their complicity, it did not consider them to be “membership in a terrorist organization”.

literature

  • Carswell, Jonathan; Wright, Joanna: Married to a Martyr - A Story of Tragedy and Hope . Authentic Media (2008), ISBN 978-1-8507-8785-3 .
  • Carswell, Jonathan; Wright, Joanna; Baum, Markus: Susanne Geske: “I don't want any revenge” - the drama of Malatya . Brunnen-Verlag, Giessen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7655-1985-7 .
  • İsmail Saymaz : Nefret - Malatya: Bir Milli Mutabakat Cinayeti (“Hate - Malatya: A Murder of National Consensus”). Kalkedon Yayıncılık, 2011.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Attack on Christians in Turkey - Three Killed at Bible Publishing Firm . In: Der Spiegel , April 18, 2007.
  2. ↑ Christians Killed in Turkey . ( Memento of the original from August 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. BBC World Service, April 19, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.bbc.co.uk
  3. ↑ The description is taken from the weekly report 16/2007 of the Turkish Democratic Forum (DTF). Reports from the daily newspapers Hürriyet and Sabah were translated. Accessed March 10, 2014.
  4. ^ Group of young Muslims murders 3 Christians in Turkey . ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gofbw.com
  5. ↑ Laura King: 3 men slain at Bible publishing firm in Turkey. In: Los Angeles Times . April 29, 2007, accessed May 20, 2009 .
  6. ^ Mehmet Ali Birand: If the statutes chairman thinks like this ... In: Turkish Daily News , April 21, 2007.
  7. ↑ Emre Günaydın azmettirici iddiası , April 23, 2007 ( Turkish ).
  8. ↑ a b Soner Arikanoğlu: Bütün suç Emre'nin ( Memento of the original from July 2, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Radikal , April 24, 2007 ( Turkish ). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.radikal.com.tr
  9. ↑ Nick Birch: Three murdered at Turkish bible publishing house . In: The Guardian , April 19, 2007.
  10. ↑ WP 40/08 Fear for safety TURKEY: Orhan Kemal Cengiz . Urgent Action on amnesty.org, February 13, 2008.
  11. ↑ Amnesty International: Further Information on UA ​​40/08. March 3, 2008.
  12. ↑ Compare the June 2012 monthly report of the DTF; Accessed March 10, 2014.
  13. ↑ Release from custody ( memento of the original dated December 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / gebetskreis.wordpress.com
  14. ↑ See the monthly report of the DTF in March 2014 ; Accessed March 10, 2014.
  15. ^ Catholic News Agency , September 29, 2016.