Christians in Turkey Fear More Attacks*

By BENJAMIN HARVEY
The Associated Press
Thursday, April 19, 2007; 4:42 PM

MALATYA, Turkey -- The slayings of three Christians in this eastern town
highlight Turkey's uneasy relationship with its minorities, and
Christians expressed fear Thursday that growing nationalism and
intolerance could lead to more violence against them.

Police detained five more suspects Thursday in the attack at a Christian
publishing house that distributes Bibles. Some reportedly said they
carried out the killings to protect Islam.

The three victims _ a German man and two Turks who converted to
Christianity _ were found with their hands and legs tied and their
throats slit. The victims had bruises on their faces and cuts on their
wrists from the ropes that bound them.

The attack Wednesday added to concerns in Europe about whether the
predominantly Muslim country _ which is bidding for European Union
membership _ can protect its religious minorities.

Christian leaders said they worried that nationalists were stoking
hostilities against non-Turks and non-Muslims by exploiting growing
uncertainty over Turkey's place in the world.

The uncertainty _ and growing suspicion against foreigners _ has been
driven by the faltering EU bid, a resilient Kurdish separatist movement
and by increasingly vocal Islamists who see themselves _ and Turkey _ as
locked in battle with a hostile Christian West.

"Our lives are in danger because of this mind-set," the Rev. Ihsan
Ozbek, pastor of the Kurtulus Church in Ankara, told a news conference
in Malatya. He said there was a "witch hunt" under way against
Christians and other minorities.

Nationalists, who have long dominated public debate in Turkey, have also
begun to call for Turkey to withdraw its EU bid and make its own way in
the world. Some young men indoctrinated with a vision of Turkish
greatness _ and with a view of the West as intent on keeping the Islamic
world weak _ view non-Muslims with suspicion.

"The problem is our education and our media," Mustafa Efe, head of Mujde
FM, or Miracle FM, a Christian broadcasting station, said after
traveling to Malatya to meet Protestant pastors. "They always say
Christianity is dangerous because Christians are trying to break up Turkey."

Christians make up just a fraction of 1 percent of Turkey's population
of 71 million.

"There is this general atmosphere of fear _ that Turkey will be
segmented," said Orhan Kemal Cengiz, a human rights lawyer who
represented one of the slain Christians, Necati Aydin, 26, in an earlier
court case. Aydin was charged with insulting Islam and spent a month in
jail after he was found distributing Bibles in the Aegean city of Izmir.

Hurriyet newspaper quoted one unidentified suspect as saying: "We didn't
do this for ourselves, but for our religion. Our religion is being
destroyed. Let this be a lesson to enemies of our religion."

Besides the five suspects detained Thursday, four others were taken into
custody at the publishing house Wednesday, as well as a fifth who
underwent surgery for head injuries after he apparently tried to escape
the crime scene by jumping from a fourth-story window. All were in their
late teens or early 20s.

Since last year, Turkish youths have killed a Roman Catholic priest
while he prayed in a church in Trabzon, threatened other priests and
killed a prominent Armenian Christian editor in Istanbul.

The latest violence comes ahead of presidential elections next month, a
contest that highlights fears among Turkey's secular establishment that
a candidate from Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Islamic-rooted
party, or even Erdogan himself, could win the job and strengthen Islamic
influence on the government.

Erdogan has rejected the label of "Islamist," citing his commitment to
Turkey's effort to join the EU.

Christians and other minorities have watched Turkey's struggling EU bid
with alarm. Many worry the papacy of Pope Benedict XVI, who when he was
still a cardinal spoke against Turkey's bid for membership, would only
contribute to their problems.

Italian Premier Romano Prodi told the ANSA news agency that while the
attack "certainly does not help" Turkey's EU bid, "tragedies like this
should not influence" the decision as there are "political guidelines
that are looking at long-term prospects."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat Party _ which
opposes Turkey's bid _ said the attacks showed the country's
shortcomings in protecting religious freedoms.

The German man, identified as 46-year-old Tilman Ekkehart Geske, had
been living in Malatya since 2003. His family wanted to bury him there,
and his German wife Susanna, speaking Turkish, told ATV television she
would stay and raise her children in the gritty textile and agriculture
city famous for its apricots.

A large Turkish flag hung from a window of the students' residence where
five of the suspects lived. The curtains were drawn and the door was locked.

Ozbek, the pastor from Ankara, said most Christians were committed to
life in Turkey.

"We'll stay where we are. We are Turkish citizens," he said. "We have
nowhere else to go."