TURKEY: Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu condemns attacks in which three are killed in Turkish publishing house which prints bibles

Attackers slit the throats of three people, including a German, at a Turkish Bible publisher's on Wednesday (April 18), officials said, the latest attack on minorities in mainly Muslim Turkey. "I really felt a great sorrow after this incident, I condemn this attack no matter what their aims were. We see this as a blow against peace, confidence, stability and tolerance. I condemn and oppose it strongly," said Turkish Interior Minister Abdulkadir Aksu. Governor of the southeastern province of Malatya, where the attack occurred, said the victims were found with their hands and feet bound. Four people were detained in connection with the attack and one person, who fell from the building and was considered a suspect, was taken to hospital with head trauma. German Ambassador Eckart Cuntz said a German was among the dead. The killings come as political tensions rise between the powerful secular elite, including army generals and judges, and the religious-minded AK Party government over next month's presidential elections. Television pictures showed police wrestling one man to the ground and leading several men -- apparently in their teens -- out of the building. A wave of nationalism has swept the secular but predominantly Sunni Muslim country over the past year. This year Armenian-Turkish editor Hrant Dink was shot dead by an ultra-nationalist youth. Dink was also from Malatya. A historic visit to Turkey by Pope Benedict last year was prefaced by protests in Istanbul and followed a rise in violence against Christian clergy. For many Turkish nationalists, Christian missionaries are seen as enemies of Turkey working to undermine its political and religious institutions. The government and other officials in Turkey have criticised Christian missionary work while the European Union, which Turkey hopes to join, has called for more freedom for the tiny Christian minority. An official from the publishing house told local television that they had received threats over its publications. He said one of the last serious attack against Turkish Christians was in 1997 when the then-active Islamist Vasat movement bombed a bible book stand in the southeast, killing one child and injuring dozens. Early last year an Italian priest was shot dead -- also by a youth -- in the Black Sea port of Trabzon which coincided with worldwide protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad.

ITN Source | April 20, 2007

Tags:. .feet. .blow. .threats. .historic. .publishers