He was about to kill a Protestant pastor in Samsun: he was detained, and then released
Turkey: Christians as Enemies of the People
by Mavi Zambak
He’s just the latest of a number of young people involved in actions against representatives of the Christian minority. He denies being part of any terrorist organisation, but his is one of a series of actions – sometimes public – against the Christian minority.
The online Turkish agency Gazeteport broke the news: “at the last minute, a new assassination attempt against a Protestant pastor in Turkey has been foiled”. The setting of the possible act: the “Agape” Protestant church in Samsun (a Turkish city on the Black Sea), which has been a target of various acts of violence in the past.
The attempt against the pastor – Orhan Pýçakçýlar, a Turkish national – was prepared by the “umpteenth” young man, who was arrested in time by the police, thanks to telephone surveillance.
The 17-year-old, who previously had threatened the pastor with death over the telephone, also used the telephone to brag to his two brothers, telling them to watch the television the following day. “Tomorrow you’ll see me on TV, I’m going to kill in Samsun”. The minor, who in a photo published by the Gazeteport newspaper appears provocatively in a black shirt, wearing Ray-Ban sunglasses and with his hair carefully arranged with gel, told the police – who captured him near the city of Ordu, on the northern border with Georgia, in possession of a pistol – that he simply wanted to scare the minister, saying that he did not belong to any terrorist organisation. So he was immediately released, on the sole condition that he not leave the country. Is he just the usual “troubled” youngster wanting to make a name for himself?
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