The Latest on the Turkish Martyrs

From another Turkish pastor. The reports of the multiple stab wounds were wrong, acccording to him.

Also,
on my last post regarding the Turkish martyrs someone posted a rather
angry response regarding my perpetuation of the 'myth of martyrdom'.
There is no myth. I know that it is very uncomfortable to Western
Christians who do not face martyrtdom on a daily basis to be confronted
with the reality that in some parts of the world the faith is costly.
Very costly. So costly that the powers and principalities of this world
demand the blood the saint who witnesses against their corruption and
spiritual bankruptcy.

We worship our God, the Father of Jesus
Christ, who has been so kind and gracious as to give us men like these.
Men who do not shrink away from death because they are true witnesses
of the Gospel. They are not the first, nor will the last.

The Greek word for witness and martyr are the same. Jesus said, "You will
be my witnesses..." Which is the same as him saying, "You will be my
martyrs..."

>Dear brothers and sisters,

>I greet you in the peace and love of our Lord and Savior Jesus
>Christ. May the Lord abundantly bless you, your families, your
>churches, and your work. We know and appreciate very much your heart for us.

>Brothers and sisters, in the last ten days we have experienced very
>painful moments, which words cannot begin to express. Our painful
>experience has shown us that our lives are as the Lord describes:
>"What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time
>and then vanishes." For this reason we have understood one more time
>how holy and close to the Lord we should live our lives.

>We have also understood that our society is easily given to emotion
>and that in such painful moments some people, whether intentionally
>or not, report certain events inaccurately and we have not prevented
>this or have not been able to do so.

>When the Malatya massacre happened we, the brothers from Diyarbakir,
>besides those already on the scene at the time of the crime, were the
>first to get there. When we got to Malatya our brother Ugur was still
>alive, but his condition was critical. Around 5:30 PM Ugur entrusted
>his spirit to the Lord.

>Dear brothers and sisters, that painful moment has slowly come into
>perspective for us so that now we have begun to see some things as we
>should. For example, it appears that those who murdered or arranged
>for the murder of these brothers are getting what they hoped for. By
>means of our reactions we may unwittingly help them. If we do not
>bring the facts into the light, these people will end up getting what
>they desired.

>Brothers Tilmann, Necati, and Ugur were murdered in a bloodthirsty
>way. This is a fact. But there are also some inaccurate claims about
>this massacre and one of these is the extent of the torture.
>According to rumors brother Tilmann was stabbed with a knife 156
>times. Brother Ugur had countless knife wounds, it has been said.
>These rumors, however, are unfounded. At the morgue we wanted to put
>brother Tilmann's body, which was in a plastic bag, into the coffin,
>but the officials and police did not like this. "It is sinful to do
>it this way, we should wrap the corpse in a shroud," they said. I
>accepted this idea and did what was right in their eyes. I asked them
>for a shroud (white cloth) and the officials moved Tilmann's body out
>of the plastic bag, which they placed to the side. I took advantage
>of this opportunity to examine brother Tilmann's body as far down as
>his stomach. I did not see any knife wounds. Only Tilmann's throat
>had been slit 8-10 centimeters and there was the stitched autopsy
>incision down the middle of Tilmann's chest. Unfortunately there are
>very different rumors circulating about brothers Tilmann and Necati.
>It has been said that their noses, lips, and ears were cut. These
>rumors do not reflect the truth. I telephoned our brother Ed Grudier
>in Adana because I knew he had seen brother Tilmann's body. I asked
>him about the knife wounds on brother Tilmann's body. Ed said to me,
>"Brother, I came across three or four knife blows in the chest area.
>I didn't see his back. On his face I can't say there were knife
>wounds, but scratches, maybe from hitting his face when he fell
>down." I knew that Ihsan Ozbek from Ankara had seen bodies. I asked
>him which bodies he had seen and he said, "I saw the chest area of
>both Tilmann and Necati. I saw purple [from bruising] on Necati's
>lips and chin, but I did not see knife wounds. I looked at brother
>Tilmann's chest, but I did not see knife wounds." These are the
>statments of those you saw the bodies of these two brothers.
>It is true that our brothers were knifed and tortured. But it was not
>to the extent of statements such as "too many wounds to count, beyond
>description." Apparently Ed Grudier looked more carefully than
>brother Ihsan and I did. Ed saw three or four knife wounds in the
>chest.

>No one saw brother Ugur's body because on the night of the same day
>the murder happened, around midnight, his family took his body for
>burial.

>I believe that brother Ugur had knife wounds similar to those of our
>other two brothers. It has been said that Ugur was stabbed all over
>his body, including his genitals. I do not believe this. You may ask
>why I don't beleive this. I think someone stabbed this much would die
>on the spot. Ugur would not have been able to remain alive until 5:30
>PM if he had been stabbed so much. That nothing abnormal happened to
>Ugur can be understood [from the fact that] exaggerated statements
>have been about our other two brothers, too.

>Therefore we reach the following conclusion: yes, these brothers were
>tortured, but not to the extent that has been explained.
>We are sons and daughters of the truth. Unfortunately unfounded news
>reports and media exaggerations have now gone out all over the world.
>Our brothers and sisters and people sensitive [to such news] have
>been misinformed. We do not intend to offend anyone. But whether the
>true facts are, let us report them without exaggeration. Let people
>everywhere think about the plain facts.
>Who started these exaggerated facts [about the Malatya massacre]? We
>purpose two possibilities:

>Those who perpetrated
>the crime planned this [the spreading of exaggerated facts] from the
>beginning and the murderers were simply tools for these people [who
>had planned to blow the murder into exaggerated proportions]. The
>goal of those who planned this murder and the exaggerated claims was
>both to frighten the Christians living in Turkey, causing them to
>shrink back and be timid, and to humiliate Turkey as a country that
>invites and causes such bloodthirty massacre, thereby damaging
>Turkey's chances of entering the European Union and making matters
>worse in the country. Furthermore, [the planners of this massacre]
>wanted to give the government and our people the impression that
>Christians distort and exaggerate everything.

>In every situation we
>see that the media either totally disregards something we say or
>totally exploits it. We investigated the bloody clothing that was
>submitted to the public as the underclothing of our brothers. None of
>this clothing belonged to our brothers. That clothing had been taken
>off the bodies of people shot to death weeks earlier. But what did
>the media do? They took this clothing and presented it as freshly
>removed from the bodies of our brothers. Is there anyone who does not
>yet know about the exaggerations and sometimes boldfaced lies of the
>media?

>Therefore, brothers and sisters, if we do not explain the true facts
>to you our hearts will not find peace. I have written this report
>because I have read exaggerated or unfounded facts in news both home
>and abroad. The true facts are those in this report. Before sending
>these facts to you, as you will see below, I have requested
>statements from our brothers Ihsan Ozbek and Ed Grudier. I have had
>these statments translated from English in order to pass them on to
>you.

>May the Lord bless you abundantly.
>XXXXXX XXXXXXX, pastor of XXXXXX Church in Turkey