I can’t get rid of my gloomy mood since I have heard the news about the attack on a publishing house that propagates the Bible and about the murder of 3 people committed by 5 men in Malatya who claim that these victims were propagandizing Christianity and working as missionaries. Why? For what reason could such kind of ferocity be committed? How can one demean himself this much? At the risk of embarrassing our religion, nation and ethics, what for such kind of murder could be committed? Is it not possible to end that kind of inhuman ferocity?

It is apparently so easy to corrupt aimless and chronically tense people. Then, who does corrupt them? The number of these questions may be improved; however we can remove obscurity about the ferocity in Malatya through two basic approaches. The first one is subject of security, criminal and justice in which works are mostly speculation or lack of information until specific reports will be issued by prosecutor and other investigators related to the case. On the other hand, the second method is rather close to the researchers in order to identify the process of murder as well as to help the identification. The main debate in analysis of these kinds of murders is the consideration of the process causing murders, an attempt to resolve under what circumstances men could be corrupted and by which reason men could simply commit murder and later putting forward a formula through emphasizing on external factors causing the process.

In contemporary Turkey, we can witness the ongoing rise of internal temper originating both from internal and external activities. However, it is not rant to express that there are many so-called intellectuals who are indeed on pursuit of benefiting from the rise of temper in society and political tension within annoying others. These activities primarily including riding the gravy and simple conspiracies or highlighting just a few biased parts among hundreds news could be commonly observed. Whether or not it may be distinguished by the actors of these activities that their actions result in motivating the morbid children with the instinct of murdering; the series of these political murders has to be evoked in their minds. At Milliyet Daily Newspaper published on April 20^th, 2007 the whole public body was justifiably asked for both the sincerity and conscientious response of following questions.

While we face with our internal query, we also have to address these questions in order to unravel the plot about the ones behind the murderer:

• Don’t we acknowledge increasing mentality full of fanaticism, intolerance and xenophobia?
• Weren’t some of our politicians concerned about missionary activities for their own end through the years?
• Can the number of people who believe that it is justifiable to contradict some symbols and values of Christianity be considered by small amounts?
• What kinds of difficulties were required to open a Protestant church in Antalya?

The responses to these questions will show us how less our spirit of tolerance is.

If Turkey is a secular country, the Christian citizens are also supposed to be equal as much as everyone else; and they have right to live in accordance with their own beliefs.

I’m in doubt about the prospect that the actors, who benefit from the increase of temper in society, were aware of the consequences of what they did and what were planned. Since, even such kind of plan needs to be analyzed by a man who has common sense. After the murder, most of these people kept showing strange behavior and said hot words through the labeling of murder as an external conspiracy. That case provides advantages for their new speculations and fictions. More critically, all of these activities are generally successful to prevent reaching a conclusion through a concrete view. It is not unreasonable to consider that the provocateurs, who launch missionaries as Christian spies constantly aiming to separate our homeland and claim that the threats of missionaries are more serious than even the days in Turkish War of Independence, have undeniable roles on provoking murders. However, it is really remarkable that people, who alarm others as saying that “The homeland is at risk of being lost.”, are surprised at murderer’s saying as “We committed murder for the sake of our religion and our homeland.”

The question of who will be the victim of next murder is not such an expression of surprise, of the inevitable reality. Those conditions mean so dreadful for Turkey hence the accurate definition of problems will be helpful during struggle with problem. The origin of accurate definition is possible through the application of inductive method instead of applying deduction. In other words, the identification of the body which prepares vital parts of murder plans and the organization of the elements triggering that process are extremely significant.

Taha Akyol reminds his article written after the murder of Hrant Dink published at Milliyet Daily Newspaper on April 20^th and claims that such kinds of murders should be expected while we are under the circumstances which activate those murders. After the arrest of Dink’s murderer Ogun Samast, Akyol has shared his following sentences with readers and later identified that process with the ferocity in Malatya.

First of all, we should not disregard the fact that there are many Ogun Samasts out there resulting from our social structure. Disintegrated, tense and asocial people in society… All over the world, these kinds of people are inclined to the right radical violence and in a different political environment they could easily tend to the leftist violence… These people with common passions simply form gangs or crude little groups… The ferocity in Malatya is the reflection of that!

One of the duty and responsibility of intellectuals is to direct the society to the truth and to warn authorities with their accurate definitions. A message from Milliyet Daily News and the comment of Taha Akyol give us clues about where and how we should chase after chief offenders. The principal warning as an outcome of these clues is to face with the truth that our problem is not only a criminal but also a social, political and cultural problem. Therefore, we don’t counter a problem which is merely limited to police force and intelligence service.

The second article written after the murder of Hrant Dink also involves important clues about how we should analyze the process after the ferocity in Malatya. In our article written on February 2^nd, 2007, what we should place at the centre of our strategy regarding to prevent such kinds of possible murders in the future can be summarized as:   

There is a Turkey refusing to accept confrontation, failing in self-assessment and defending its values by reflecting these on others. Capturing emotional state of fight and quarrel in the atmosphere of tension strategy is main the identifying factor of this process. The destination of this process is new murders because murders yield premium. It works efficiently and hoods become heroes. The anarchy in society increases and Turkey is stuck in the international platform. Turkey becomes more passive, more obsessed with mysterious sentimentality and destroys its own potential instead of taking initiative in its own agenda. The second event in the sequence of Hrant Dink murder does not flash good implications in our minds. The near future will not be so clear unless we altogether deal with our problems considering twice, remembering our responsibilities, and confronting ourselves.

The tragedy in Malatya is not an event which could simply be recovered by contempt. Security measures and intelligence sources have really important roles on impeding such tragedies. However, the main element of the problem is to reject the process of normalizing these murders by conditional sayings. Furthermore, so-called intellectuals, who always accuse external factors for causing trouble in Turkey, should immediately abandon abusing the public opinion. Otherwise, it won’t be surprising that some possible murders in the near future will exist within society and such kinds of brutal murders will continually be the tragic destiny of our country.

Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ihsan Bal