Was geschah in Malatya?
Christians in Turkey

08:07 Min, ORF - Orientierung 20.1.2008

The details are overwhelming. On the 14th of February 2008, the hearing of the defendants in the murder case of three Christians in east-anatolian Malatya begun. Five young men killed the head of the community of the local protestant Church of the Redeemer. The three men, running a bible publishing company, had their throats cut after three hours of heaviest abuse. One of the victims was the German Tilman Geske.

Susanne Geske, widow with three children in the ages of nine to thirteen, has decided to stay in Malatya. She trusts that God will protect her family and wants to continue to support the Christian diaspora in Anatolia. Susanne Geske has forgiven the murderers but wishes for clarification of the background of this crime. For her it is clear that it is not about a religious conflict but a power struggle in the political system.

Also in Istanbul, the catholic community of German-speaking Christians St. Paul feels in an unsafe niche of the society. Alone the legal status of the community resembles mere toleration.
 
In Malatya, we proceed to look for backgrounds of this cruel crime. We find similarities to the murder of the Armenian-Turkish journalist Hrant Drink in Istanbul last year. The lawyer Orhan Kemal Cengiz explains, the offenders all come from the environment of ultra nationalist youth leagues.