Zirve Publishing House massacre
| Zirve Publishing House massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Malatya, Turkey |
| Date | April 18, 2007 |
| Target | Zirve Kitabevi (Zirve Publishing House) |
| Weapons | Knife |
| Deaths | 3 |
| Victim |
Pastor Necati Aydın Uğur Yüksel, Tilmann Geske |
The Zirve Publishing House massacre took place on April 18, 2007 in Zirve Publishing House, Malatya, Turkey. Three employees of the Bible publishing house were attacked, tortured and murdered by five Muslim assailants.
According to the human rights group International Christian Concern (ICC), the troubles began on Easter Sunday when the alleged killers, one of whom is the son of a mayor, attended a service led by Pastor Aydın. "After [Aydın] read a chapter from the Bible, the young men tied [Yüksel, Aydın, and Geske’s] hands and feet to chairs as they videoed their work on their cell phones." Afterwards they were heavily tortured.
Gökhan Talas, the chief witness and a Protestant, came with his wife to the office. The door was locked from inside which was quite unusual. Suspecting that something had happened, he called Uğur Yüksel not knowing that he was inside tied to a chair. Yüksel replied and said that they were in a hotel for a meeting. Talas heard someone crying in the background during his talk with Yüksel, and decided to call the police, who arrived soon thereafter. According to Talas, the attackers killed Yüksel and Aydın after the police arrived.
Two of the victims, Necati Aydın, 36, and Uğur Yüksel, 32, were Turkish converts from Islam. The third man, Tilmann Geske, 45, was a German citizen. Necati Aydın was an actor who played the role of Jesus Christ in a theater production that the TURK-7 network aired over the Easter holidays.
Aydın is survived by his wife, Şemse, and a son and daughter, both preschool age. Geske is survived by his wife Susanne and three children aged 8 to 13. Yüksel was engaged.
Necati Aydin was a graduate of the Martin Bucer Seminary whose president Thomas Schirrmacher said he simply cried when he learned of the deaths.
Eleven suspects were apprehended after the attack. The chief suspect, Yunus Emre Günaydın, was treated for serious wounds after he attempted to jump out of a window to escape police. All of the alleged killers were between 19 and 20 years old. Günaydın was born in 1988 in Malatya and had no previous convictions. One suspect confessed that "The leader of the group was Emre. It was he who devised the plan to kill them. We went to the publishing house together. When we entered the place, we tied them to their chairs and Emre slit their throats". According to another suspect, the victims knew Günaydın, as he regularly visited the publishing house. Another suspect added that they all knew each other. When apprehended, the suspects were carrying a note that said in part "We did it for our country. They are trying to take our country away, take our religion away."
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Wikipedia