‘Malatya Massacre’ killers go on trial in Turkey
Nineteen suspects accused of inciting the brutal 2007 murders of three Christians in eastern Turkey went on trial before Malatya’s Third Criminal Court in early September.
Ethnic groups in Turkey, 2011 photo/Sirwanii via wikimedia commons
Compass Direct details the court’s acceptance of a third indictment in the case, known as the “Malatya Massacre” in the Turkish media, allegations against primarily military officials have finally been made public.
“This indictment provides the first solid evidence that our military authorities officially assigned the named suspects to monitor and attack the Christians in Malatya,” Umut Sahin from the legal committee of the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches told Open Doors News.
There were three people who sold Christian literature and were later brutally killed. Retired military Genreal Hurşit Tolon as the prime suspect in the case added Todays Zaman.
The indictment also states that the Zirve murders were carried out as part of the Cage Action Plan, a subversive plot allegedly devised by military officers that sought to undermine the government through assassinations and other acts of terror against non-Muslims in Turkey.
An anti-democratic group within the Naval Forces Command behind the Cage plan had intended to foment chaos in society with those killings, but complained that the plan had failed when large segments of society protested the killings in mass demonstrations.
