Turkey: Court orders compensation for families of murdered Christians

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Turkey | 25 February 2016

In a highly remarkable verdict the Malatya Administrative Court has ruled that the Turkish Interior Ministry and the Malatya Governor's Office are to pay damages‚ to the families of three Christians working at the Zirve Publishing House killed on 18 April 2007. The Turkish daily, Today"s Zaman, reported on 26 January 2016 that each family of the three employees who were murdered will be paid compensation ranging from 800,000 Turkish Lira (approx. 248,000 Euro/270,000 US dollar) to 1 million Turkish Lira (approx. 310,000 Euro/337,300 US dollar) in by the Interior Ministry. Rolf Zeegers, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, admits that the verdict came as rather a surprise: "Up until now, the Malatya murder case had been dragging on endlessly in the Turkish court. As a result, all 12 murder suspects, including high army officers, were released in 2014. Now the Turkish court seems to have made a U-turn by admitting that there has been negligence to the families. This verdict could be an attempt to end the case without sending any of the suspects to jail. As such, the families may get money but still no justice."