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Canada Free Press, Canada
Jan 14 2008
Turkey Releases Teenager Planning `Massacre' In Church
By OnTheWeb: BosNewsLife Monday, January 14, 2008
A Turkish teenager who vowed to kill the pastor of a Protestant
church and `massacre' Christians in the Black Sea coastal city of
Samsun has been released by a local court because he is `too young'
Turkish media reported Tuesday, January 8.
The 17-year-old Semih Seymen was detained over the weekend after he
called Pastor Orhan Picaklar of the Samsun Agape Churchseveral times
since late December, threatening to kill him, said Turkey's Taraf
newspaper.
Police forces specialized in anti-terror actions monitoring the phone
calls tracked down the suspect and arrested him Saturday, January 5,
officials said. However Judge Sinan Sonmez of Samsun's First Minor
Petty Offenses Court apparently ruled the next day, Sunday, January
6, that Seymen should be released because of his youth.
Pastor Picaklar reportedly condemned the decision saying in published
remarks that the defendant `openly confessed he was going to carry
out a massacre...' It came after previous attacks against the church,
including in January 2007, when some 30 heavy rocks were thrown
through the Samsun Agape Church windows, several of them smashing
interior windows and denting walls, the pastor said earlier.
VERY DRUNK
Turkish media said Seymen admitted he had told friends late Saturday,
January 5, he wanted to `do a massacre' the next morning at the Agape
Church during Sunday worship. However Seymen allegedly also told
police interrogators he was drunk when making the threats and that
they could not be taken seriously.
He also wanted to threaten the Trabzon Catholic Church, but
reportedly changed his mind when a woman answered the phone. The
latest threats underscored anxiety among Christian leaders in a
country where at least five Christians were killed and several others
injured in attacks within the last two years.
In April last year, a German and two Turkish citizens - were found
with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit at the Zirve
Christian publishing house in the central city of Malatya.
The attack came shortly after a suspected nationalist killed Armenian
Christian editor Hrant Dink. In February 2006, a Turkish teenager
shot a Catholic priest dead as he prayed in his church, and two other
Catholic priests were attacked later that year.
LATEST ATTACK
One of the latest, non-fatal, attacks occurred last month when an
Italian Roman Catholic priest, Driano Franchini, was stabbed December
16, after Sunday Mass at St. Anthony's church in the port city of
Izmir. He was released from hospital several days later.
A prosecutor charged a 19-year-old man with stabbing and wounding
with a knife, but no trial date was set yet, BosNewsLife monitored.
The European Union has complained that Turkey, an EU applicant, fails
to fully protect the religious freedoms of its tiny Christian
minority, which numbers some 100,000 in a predominantly Muslim
population of nearly 75 million people, according to estimates.
While Turkey is officially `secular' Muslim militants and
nationalists oppose Christian activities in the country, analysts and
church observers say. (With BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos and reporting
from Turkey).
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/1 374
Jan 14 2008
Turkey Releases Teenager Planning `Massacre' In Church
By OnTheWeb: BosNewsLife Monday, January 14, 2008
A Turkish teenager who vowed to kill the pastor of a Protestant
church and `massacre' Christians in the Black Sea coastal city of
Samsun has been released by a local court because he is `too young'
Turkish media reported Tuesday, January 8.
The 17-year-old Semih Seymen was detained over the weekend after he
called Pastor Orhan Picaklar of the Samsun Agape Churchseveral times
since late December, threatening to kill him, said Turkey's Taraf
newspaper.
Police forces specialized in anti-terror actions monitoring the phone
calls tracked down the suspect and arrested him Saturday, January 5,
officials said. However Judge Sinan Sonmez of Samsun's First Minor
Petty Offenses Court apparently ruled the next day, Sunday, January
6, that Seymen should be released because of his youth.
Pastor Picaklar reportedly condemned the decision saying in published
remarks that the defendant `openly confessed he was going to carry
out a massacre...' It came after previous attacks against the church,
including in January 2007, when some 30 heavy rocks were thrown
through the Samsun Agape Church windows, several of them smashing
interior windows and denting walls, the pastor said earlier.
VERY DRUNK
Turkish media said Seymen admitted he had told friends late Saturday,
January 5, he wanted to `do a massacre' the next morning at the Agape
Church during Sunday worship. However Seymen allegedly also told
police interrogators he was drunk when making the threats and that
they could not be taken seriously.
He also wanted to threaten the Trabzon Catholic Church, but
reportedly changed his mind when a woman answered the phone. The
latest threats underscored anxiety among Christian leaders in a
country where at least five Christians were killed and several others
injured in attacks within the last two years.
In April last year, a German and two Turkish citizens - were found
with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit at the Zirve
Christian publishing house in the central city of Malatya.
The attack came shortly after a suspected nationalist killed Armenian
Christian editor Hrant Dink. In February 2006, a Turkish teenager
shot a Catholic priest dead as he prayed in his church, and two other
Catholic priests were attacked later that year.
LATEST ATTACK
One of the latest, non-fatal, attacks occurred last month when an
Italian Roman Catholic priest, Driano Franchini, was stabbed December
16, after Sunday Mass at St. Anthony's church in the port city of
Izmir. He was released from hospital several days later.
A prosecutor charged a 19-year-old man with stabbing and wounding
with a knife, but no trial date was set yet, BosNewsLife monitored.
The European Union has complained that Turkey, an EU applicant, fails
to fully protect the religious freedoms of its tiny Christian
minority, which numbers some 100,000 in a predominantly Muslim
population of nearly 75 million people, according to estimates.
While Turkey is officially `secular' Muslim militants and
nationalists oppose Christian activities in the country, analysts and
church observers say. (With BosNewsLife's Stefan J. Bos and reporting
from Turkey).
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/1 374