MALATYA, Turkey — A court in southeast Turkey on Oct. 15 ordered the arrest of a suspected “middleman” linking the murder of three Christian men to alleged high-level masterminds. The arrest order came after the testimonies of a former prison inmate and an incarcerated ex-intelligence worker at the Oct. 15 hearing. Journalist Varol Bulent Aral — one of the suspected “middlemen” who allegedly incited five young men to stab to death Turkish Christians Necati Aydin and Ugur Yuksel and German Christian Tilmann Geske at the Zirve Publishing Co. in Malatya — was re-arrested at the hearing. A key witness, Orhan Kartal, said while in prison with Aral, Aral detailed how he had planned the attack on the Zirve publishing house by psychologically preparing five young men for the gruesome act.
In Kartal’s account, Aral also claimed that there was a higher figure behind him, retired Gen. Veli Kucuk. A second witness, Erhan Ozen, worked for the clandestine Gendarmerie Intelligence Organization (GIO). He said as early as 2004, GIO personnel were planning the Malatya murders and the assassination of Armenian editor Hrant Dink. Ozen said after a meeting, some co-workers talked about how they were organizing an operation against the three Christians in Malatya in an effort to portray the state as ineffectual.
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