The following is an urgent prayer request regarding an upcoming national vote in Turkey.  I urge you to please pray accordingly.

In April of 2007, three Christians were martyred in the city of Malatya in central Turkey.  Of these men, Necati Aydin, 36, and Ugur Yuksel, 32, were Turkish converts from Islam. The third man, Tilmann Geske, 46, was a German citizen.  The three men are the first martyrs of modern day Turkey.  What was unknown at the time, however, is that their deaths will possibly help to save the lives of the several thousand Christians that make up the fledgling Turkish Church.  Let me explain.

Several years prior to the death of these men, the Turkish government declared three threats to the Turkish state: 1. Hizbollah militia groups 2. Kurdish rebels 3. Evangelical Christians.  While Turkey is a secular state made up of several competing political parties with opposing ideologies, it's nationalism takes on a strong religious tone: To be Turkish is to be Muslim.  Hence, the reason why Evangelicals pose such a threat.  Following the death of the three Christians, Germany firmly insisted that either Turkish authorities thoroughly investigate the matter or they promptly would.  This investigation, then, uncovered a chain of connections that is now resulting in a national election on September 12 to permanently alter the Turkish Constitution.  Most speculate that the referendum will pass.

As authorities began investigating the five young Turks that committed the murder of the three Christians, they kept uncovering links of all five men to the Turkish military.  The first major discovery then, unveiled the fact that several high ranking military officials authorized the killing of the three Christians.  Because these men are on active military duty, however, under current Turkish law, they can't be touched by the police.  The military is, essentially, above the law.

As authorities conducted this investigation, they uncovered a much larger scheme: Operation Cage.  In what sounds like something from a Hollywood script, the Turkish military was planning an extensive coup of the Turkish government.  Their plan was to "cage" the government in by staging killings throughout the country of people from all the religious, sectarian, and ethnic groups.  When the country went into to turmoil and unrest, the military would have then stepped in to "save" the country from the government that was to be blamed for the killings.  To the outside world, the military would have been the hero against a vicious government.  Yet, to Turkey internally, the military would have used its new position of power to carry out further cleansing of the "threats" to the Turkish state, which would have ended in the death of everyone of the 3,000+ Turkish evangelical Christians.

However, in part due to the death of the three Christians in Malatya, the coup was discovered and revealed to the Turkish population, at large.  Now, on September 12 an election will be conducted to change the Turkish constitution which will, among several other things, bring the military under direct government control, open military officials up to censure by Turkish law, and give a great deal of religious freedom, not only to Christians, but to Muslims, as well.  Should the referendum pass, it will be a day of great victory for Turkish Believers.  Pray for God's will to be done.

Marc Glass