Relatives Of Malatya Massacre Victims Sue State Organs For Negligence

Relatives of Necati Aydın and Uğur Yüksel who were killed at Malatya last year for supposedly doing missionary work filed a lawsuit against the Prime Ministry, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Education.

Necati Aydın’s wife Şemse Aydın and her children Elişe Güneş Aydın and Ester Bahar Aydın, Uğur Yüksel’s mother Hadice Yüksel and his father İbrahim Yüksel demand 650 thousand YTL (about 325 thousand Euro) from these three institutions in damages.

“The Ministry of Education, the National Intelligence Agency and the General Staff are all responsible”

The plaintiffs applied to the Ankara Administrative Court through their lawyers Orhan Kemal Cengiz and Mehmet Ali Koç. Although the application did not accuse the Ministry of Education directly, it held it responsible for negligence in the curriculum of the primary and secondary schools.

The accusation against the Ministry of Education emphasized that the students are thought only the Sunni Islam in the mandatory religion courses, nearly all the moral examples come from religion and there is nearly no information about plurality, democratic society, equality among people, tolerance, freedom of religion and belief diversity.

The application also accused the National Intelligence Agency (MİT) for not being able to prevent the massacre, to infiltrate reports about the activities of the missionary groups and different belief groups to the media and public. It also accused the General Staff for portraying these different belief groups as internal threat, danger and enemy.

“Ministry of Interior gathered information, but did not protect”

The application accused the Ministry of Interior for not protecting the protestants despite keeping them under constant surveillance.

“Although they are obligated to protect both the freedom of religion and belief and the right to life, they violated the freedom of religion by keeping the protestants under constant surveillance, apprehending them and publishing reports and comments about them.”

The application also pointed out to the fact that contrary to the practice in the democratic countries, the crimes against different beliefs are not considered as hate crimes in Turkey, they do not receive the needed sentences.

The murder case will continue on October 10

On April 18, 2007, the Zirve Publishing building was raided and three Protestants Necati Aydın, Uğur Yüksel, German citizen Tilman Ekkehart Geske were brutally murdered.

Emre Günaydın, Salih Gürler, Cuma Özdemir, Hamit Çeker and Abuzer Yıldırım are in prison in connection with the murders. Two other suspects, not in prison, are on trial as well. The next hearing will be in Malatya’s 3rd High Criminal Court on October 10. (EÖ/TB)