Christian Retailing

Christian bookshop in Turkey vandalized Print Email
Written by Eric Tiansay   
Thursday, 19 February 2009 02:44 PM America/New_York

Following threats from Muslim nationalists, a Turkish Bible Society Christian bookshop in Adana, Turkey, was recently vandalized for the second time in a week, Compass Direct News reported.

Security camera footage shows two youths attacking the storefront of the Soz Kitapevi bookshop Feb. 12, kicking and smashing glass in both the window and the door. During the first attack on Feb. 7, the glass of the front door was smashed and the security camera mangled.

The bookshop has received threats from both Muslim hardliners and nationalists. According to Compass, a man entered the shop last November and began making accusations that the Soz Kitapevi bookshop was working with the CIA. He reportedly said: "You work with them killing people in Muslim countries, harming Muslim countries."

Meanwhile, a Turkish court has charged two more men in the murder of three Christians who worked at an evangelical publishing house, Compass reported. An ex-journalist suspected of ties to a group that tried to engineer a political coup, Varol Bulent Aral, 32, was arrested Feb. 4 on suspicion of instigating the murder.

Huseyin Yelki, 34, a Turk who has worked for Christian organizations, was arrested Feb. 9 after suspected ringleader Emre Gunaydin implicated him for instigation of murder, Compass reported. Yelki is a former volunteer worker at Zirve Publishing Company in Malatya, Turkey- the site of the April 18, 2007, brutal torture and murder of Necati Aydin, Ugur Yuksel and Tilmann Geske. The next hearing in the case is scheduled to take place Feb. 20.