By Wolfgang Polzer
Special to ASSIST News ServiceMALATYA (ANS) – Three evangelical Christians were brutally murdered in Turkey, April 18. Necati Aydin (35), Ugur Yksel (32) – both Turks – and the German Tilmann Geske (46) were found tied up and their throats slit in the small Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, Central Turkey.

Three evangelical Christians were brutally murdered in Turkey, April 18. Necati Aydin (35), Ugur Yksel (32) – both Turks – and the German Tilmann Geske (46) were found tied up and their throats slit in the small Zirve Publishing House in Malatya, Central Turkey.A fourth person escaped by jumping out of a window and was seriously hurt. Turkish police have arrested five 19 and 20-year-old suspects. According to press reports the Muslims have admitted the crime. The paper Hurriyet quoted one of the suspects with the words: “May this be a lesson to the enemies of the faith.”

Zirve Publishing House specializes in Turkish Christian literature and distributes the Jesus Film. Geske, who was married and father of three children worked as an interpreter for Zirve.

Aydin, married and father of two children, was one of the directors of the Publishing House and also in charge of a small evangelical church in Malatya.

Recently Aydin held lectures in Germany and urged Christians to relate the Gospel to Muslims “in a loving way”. As the German ministry Orientdienst told the evangelical news agency “idea”, Aydin had frequently been threatened. The third victim, Yksel, planned to get married in the fall.

The German public has reacted with sorrow and outrage to the news of the multiple murder. The leader of the main line Protestant Churches in Germany, Bishop Wolfgang Huber, referred to the efforts to spread the biblical message.

“To offer other this Word of Life must never be regarded as a reason to threaten a person’s life and limb,” said Huber. He called for prayers on behalf of the bereaved.

The Turkish Islamic Union in Germany has denounced the murders as an “abominable act”. The Turkish agency expressed its condolences especially to the family of the German victim and called for a speedy investigation of the crime.

German politicians have also denounced the murders. Some are questioning the efforts to integrate Turkey into the European Union, as long as religious freedom seems to be impaired.

The EU Commission also denounced the assassination but said it was too early to speculate about possible repercussions for the negotiations with Turkey.