The suspects were students who were living in a dormitory. On Wednesday police detained four youths, aged 19-20, and a fifth who underwent surgery for head injuries after he apparently tried to escape by jumping from a window at the Zirve publishing house in the central city of Malatya.
Malatya Gov. Halil İbrahim Daşöz said another five suspects, detained on Thursday, were of the same age as those taken into custody on the day of the attack. He did not say whether the group detained on Thursday had been at the scene of the attack, saying only that they had been picked up at “various locations.”
The three victims -- a German and two Turkish citizens -- were found with their hands and legs bound and their throats slit at the publishing house. Police went to the scene after receiving calls about a fight. The five suspects detained Wednesday had each had been carrying copies of a letter that read: “We five are brothers. We are going to our deaths. We may not return,” according to the Anatolia news agency.
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul said the attack had hurt his country’s image abroad and was aimed at “Turkey’s peace, Turkey’s tradition of tolerance and Turkey’s stability.” Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan described the attack as “savagery.”
The German and one of the Turkish victims were found dead, and the third victim died in a hospital, Malatya Governor Halil İbrahim Daşöz said. The German man had been living in Malatya since 2003, he said.
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier condemned the attack “in the strongest terms” and said he expected Turkish authorities would “do everything to clear up this crime completely and bring those responsible to justice.” German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat Party -- which opposes Turkey’s bid to join the EU -- said the attacks showed the country’s shortcomings in protecting religious freedoms.
A group of 150 lit candles and unfurled a banner that read “We are all Christians” in downtown İstanbul to protest the attack and show solidarity with the Christian community.
Funeral held for one victim
Uğur Yüksel, one of the victims killed in the Malatya attack, was buried in Mansuruşağı village near the eastern city of Elazığ after a religious ceremony held in the village mosque. Yüksel’s relatives, political party representatives and citizens attended Yüksel’s funeral. Yüksel’s father, Uğur Yüksel, who was mourning forhis son’s death said: “How can a human being kill another in such a brutal way? They slit the throat of my son.”
Benzer Haberler 
National
