World Changers International

Martyrs in Turkey, April 18, 2007

One of the pastor's that WCI has worked with sent this update on the horrible tragedy in Eastern Turkey. Please continue to pray for the widows and children of these three brothers.

Esteemed brothers,

I greet you in the love and peaceof our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus. May the Lordabundantly bless you and your families, churches andwork.

We know of your heart for us and we want to expressour thanks. Brothers, over these past 10 days we havegone through some very difficult times the most ofwhich cannot be expressed by mere words. This has onlyserved to show us that our lives are as the Lord said:"What is our life? We are like the mist that suddenlyappears and then disappears." Consequently we haveagain learned how we need to live our lives inholiness and closeness to the Lord.

We also have learned that we are an emotional societyand that in difficult days such as these we were notable to correct the wrong information passed along bysome people whether they do this out of goodintentions or bad ones.

When this incident first took place besides thebrothers there, we from Diyarbakir were the first toarrive there. When we arrived our brother Ugur wasstill alive but in serious condition and around 5:30pmhe gave up his spirit.

Dear brothers, this difficult time is just now slowlysinking in and we're beginning to see the incidentmore clearly. It seems that those who killed or hadour brothers killed are now achieving their goals. Wealso with our reactions without realizing it arepossibly aiding them in this matter. If we don't bringthe truth to the surface these persons will haveindeed achieved their aim.

Our brothers Tilman, Necati and Ugur were viciouslymurdered that is a fact. However there are somedetails regarding the torture that was performed thatare not true. According to some rumors Tilman wasstabbed 156 times and our brother Ugur's stabbingswere too many to number. This is most certainly nottrue. While we were placing Tilman's body which waswrapped in plastic into his casket in the morgue theemployees and police present there becameuncomfortable saying, "We should wrap the bodyotherwise this isn't right", so I conceded in order todo what was right in their eyes too. So I asked for awhite sheet, then I and the employees there removedthe plastic to the sides. Then I purposefully examinedTilman's chest as far down as his waist and I did notsee any knife wounds. Only his neck was cut 8- 10centimeters and his chest was sewed shut from wherethe doctor had done an autopsy. Unfortunately therumors spread about Tilman and Necati are quitedifferent. It is rumored that their noses, lips andears had been cut. This does not represent the truthin any way. I called brother Ed Grudier in Adanaknowing that he had likewise seen Tilman's corpse. Iasked him about the knife wounds on Tilman's body.What he said to me was as follows: "brother I onlycame across 3 or 4 knife wounds around his chest, Iwasn't able to see his back, I didn't see any knifewounds on his face but there were small marks maybe aresult of some fall. Because I knew that our brotherIhsan Ozbek from Ankara had also seen the corpses Ialso asked him and he said the following to me: "I sawthe chest area of both Necati and Tilman. Besides somebruises on Necati's chin and lip I didn't come acrossany knife wounds. I also looked at Tilman's chest butdidn't see any marks of a knife wound." These are thebrothers who saw the bodies.

It is true that they were knifed and tortured but notas it is claimed with words like, "more wounds thancan be counted." Ihsan and I didn't see any marks butEd Grudier inspected the bodies more carefully and saw3 or 4 knife wounds around the chest.

No one was able to see the body of Ugur because hisfamily came the day of the incident and aroundmidnight took his body away.

I also think that the stabbings that Ugur receivedwere not that many. According to the things describedhe was stabbed all over including his sexual organ. Idon't believe this. Why? Because if someone were to beknifed this viciously he would die on the spot. Thereis no way that he could have stayed alive that long,until 5:30 pm. It seems from the exaggerated accountsof the other brothers that Ugur was not subjected tothis kind of abnormal treatment.

In summary we can ascertain that indeed these brotherswere tortured but not as much as has been described.We are the sons of the daughters of the truth.Consequently whether it is these unfounded rumors orthe exaggerations of the media which haveunfortunately gone all across the world, now ourbrothers and other sensitive people have been wronglyinformed. Our intention here is not to offend anyone.However if there are a set of facts lets pass themalong without exaggeration so that folks can evaluatethe simple truths.

So who are those that have spread this exaggeratednews. We think there are two:

1.The people who have planned this crime thoughtof this ahead of time and the actual killers were onlyinstruments. Their purpose in the killings and theexaggerations were designed not only to scare theChristians in Turkey and cause them to pull back butalso to frame Turkey as a country that harbors andfosters such vicious massacres in hopes that it mightcreate tension and even hinder their entrance to theEuropean Union.

2.In every case we see that the media eithermakes our one zero or calls it one hundred. Weexplored for example the tattered and blood-stainedclothes that the media portrayed as belonging to ourbrothers and found that they indeed did not belongedto them. Those clothes belonged to someone who waskilled in gun battle weeks ago. But the mediaportrayed them as belonging to our brothers. Everyoneknows the media's tendency to exaggerate and outrightfabricate lies.

On account of this brothers, we felt that if we didn'ttell you the facts our hearts would not be at peace.The reasons I wrote this report was the differingreports that I was receiving from both inside andoutside Turkey which I deemed either exaggerated orbaseless. These are the true facts. Before I send thisalong, as you will see below I have included thereports of Ihsan Ozbek and Ed Grudier and I will havethis translated into English and pass it along. May the Lord bless you abundantly.

Brother Ahmet GuvenerÝhsan Özbek's thoughts:Ahmet brother,What you have testified regarding my comments arecorrect.I have no objections regarding the rest. Thank you for writing these down. If everyone knowsthese it will be much better Greetings, Ihsan Özbek

Ed Grudier's thoughts: Ahmet brother,Thank you for writing this. It will be good if we cancorrect this wrong information.What you have said is entirely right. May the Lord's grace be with you. EdZekai

Tanyar's thoughts: Dear Ahmet,I cannot comment on this subject from first handknowledge, however I personally met with Necati andTilman's wives Semsa and Susanne and their impressionsfit better with yours.

Essentially there are extreme rumors of wounds andtorture that remain unproven and it seems that in theshock of the incident unfortunately even some brotherspassed these along everywhere.I think the report you have prepared in order tocorrect this is very good and should be spread aroundas soon as possible in and outside the country.

Blessings, Zekai