By SABRINA TAVERNISE Published: April 19, 2007 ISTANBUL, April 18 — Three people were found with their throats slit in a publishing house in eastern Turkey that printed Bibles and other Christian literature, the authorities said Wednesday. One victim was a German citizen.
Osman Orsal/Reuters Protesters in Istanbul marched Wednesday with placards reading “Let’s defend living together,” after the killing of three evangelicals in the east. Turkish authorities detained five men for questioning, three 19-year-olds and two 20-year-olds; the five were not identified. The publishing house, in Malatya, a town with a reputation for nationalism, has had trouble in the past over a shipment of Bibles, and it seemed likely that the attackers had a nationalist agenda.
Change is opening up Turkish society, and the country’s nationalist fringe, for whom the ethnic and religious purity of the Turkish state is worth killing for, has been turning to violence more often. Hrant Dink, a Turkish journalist of Armenian descent, who was killed in January in Istanbul, was one of the victims. A Roman Catholic priest was another.
The trend worries the government, whose prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been pushing hard for Turkey’s entry into the European Union. Some European politicians have opposed membership, arguing that Turkey does not fit in culturally or religiously.
The three victims in Malatya were found seated in chairs, their hands and feet bound, Halil Ibrahim Dasoz, a government official there, said in comments on NTV, a Turkish news channel. One did not die from his wounds until later; he had also been stabbed in the back and stomach.
The state-run Anatolian news agency identified the victims as Tilman Ekkehart Geske, 46; Necati Aydin, 35; and Ugur Yuksel, whose age was not given. The German ambassador to Turkey, Eckart Cuntz, said through a spokesman that one victim was a German citizen but he declined to give details.
The victims were evangelical Protestants, said an evangelical pastor in Istanbul, Carlos Madrigal, who said he knew them, Reuters reported.
The killings took place in the building where the publishing house was based, the Turkish interior minister, Abdulkadir Aksu, said at a news conference.
Several of the suspects were carrying weapons when they were apprehended, the authorities said. One had broken his leg in a jump or fall. NTV broadcast images of authorities rushing several young men down the stairwell of a building.
The recent nationalist attacks are ghosts from Turkey’s past. Malatya once had a heavy Armenian population. But in eastern Turkey, Armenians were driven out or killed in a series of purges culminating in the 1915 genocide, in which 1.5 million Armenians died. Subsequently, nationalists were urged to settle in the area to preserve a Turkish identity there.
Mehmet Ali Agca, who tried to assassinate Pope John Paul II in 1981, was from Malatya, as was Mr. Dink, the outspoken journalist.
“Nationalism is on the rise in Turkey,” said Ali Bulac, a Turkish newspaper columnist in Istanbul. “It stands against the U.S. and the E.U.”
The publishing house had changed its name recently after trouble with nationalists who had forcefully blocked a shipment of Bibles, said Meftun Kilinc, a reporter from ERTV, a station in Malatya, who spoke in a telephone interview. She said the new name was the Zirve Publishing House.
Turkish nationalists boast of their Muslim identity, but often have just as much in common with the secularists of the state elite as with Islamists. So it was not clear whether the suspects were motivated more by a dedication to Islam or a longing for a pure Turkish state.
The distinction is important because of the broad debate over the role of religion now roiling Turkish society. The discussion has become more shrill in recent weeks because the country faces an election to its presidency, the single most important post safeguarding secularism.
Prime Minister Erdogan, a former Islamist who has moderated his views considerably, may try to compete for the presidency, a possibility that has thrown some secularists into a panic.
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