Necati Aydin, Tillman Geske and Uður Yüksel. On 18 April 2007, the three - two Turks and a German national - were brutally murdered in their office in the south-eastern town of Malatya. The murders left behind grieving families, a community in fear and a country with mixed emotions about the incident.
The trial of the five alleged killers of Aydin, Geske and Yucel - finally begun late last year in Malatya - drags on. But it raises numerous questions as to who else was involved in planning or inciting this terrible attack.
In its January 2008 report of violations of the human rights of the Protestant community, Turkey's Alliance of Protestant Churches described 2007 as a "dark year" for the community. The motivation to compile such a report was to draw attention to the community's problems and provide concrete information for those concerned for the protection of human rights. Sadly, Turkish media coverage of the report was minimal.
The report includes a long list of incidents of alleged violations of human rights and provides a chilling insight into the hardships and attacks this group is subjected to.
First of all, it is interesting to note that all the incidents were committed by non-State actors, not by the State as such. This of itself indicates enormous societal intolerance against Protestants in Turkish society. Yet this does not relieve the State of its obligations to protect the life, liberty and freedom of religion or belief of its citizens.
Secondly, as well as the horrendous murders in Malatya, the list includes many other attacks against members of this community or their places of worship. These include seven attacks on church buildings (ranging from attempts to burn the building to throwing stones), four threats to kill church leaders, one plot to murder a church leader, and two attempts to kidnap a church leader and his 11-year-old son.
The report stresses that this list contains only those incidents where the victims were willing to come forward. It also acknowledges that many other incidents occur, where people are not prepared to make a public complaint for fear of being exposed.
The third striking feature of the report is that, with few exceptions, the authorities have not been able to find the perpetrators. The report calls on the Government and State institutions to take a proactive attitude to the "lynching campaign" directed against the Protestant community, whose members are mainly people who have converted to Christianity from Islam.
But it is not only Protestants who have suffered violence. This year a Catholic priest, Fr Adriano Franchini, was stabbed by the 20-year-old R.B. in Izmir, though thankfully the priest survived. The statement of R.B. at the start of his trial on 9 April is a striking testimony to the causes of violence against Christians in Turkey. He testified that he had observed that after the murders in 2006 of the Catholic priest Fr Andrea Santoro and in 2007 and of the Armenian Turkish journalist Hrant Dink, the alleged killers were received as heroes. R.B. thought he would become a hero like them.
