Necati Aydın was an actor who played the role of Jesus Christ in a theater production that the TURK-7 network aired over the Easter holidays.
[4][5] Necati Aydın was a graduate of the Martin Bucer Seminary whose president Thomas Schirrmacher said he simply cried when he learned of the deaths.
[7] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan expressed his dismay, stating, "We are upset that such an atrocity took place in our country.
"[8] Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the German Foreign Minister, condemned the attacks strongly, affirming, "[We will] do everything to clear up this crime completely and bring those responsible to justice.
"[9] Niyazi Güney, Justice Ministry Statutes Directorate General Manager, commented on the incident, stating that "Missionary work is even more dangerous than terrorism and unfortunately is not considered a crime in Turkey.
On the tenth day of the hearing, Günaydın said that a journalist, Varol Bülent Aral, had told him that the missionary work was connected to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).
The prosecutors then demanded a copy of the Ergenekon indictment concerning an alleged high-level cabal, and the judge agreed to request this from the Heavy Penal Court in Istanbul.
[26] In December 2010, a suspect in the Zirve case told the court that the National Strategies and Operations Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), the armed side of Ergenekon, is still planning attacks against non-Muslims in the country.
[28] On orders of the prosecutor in the Ergenekon trial, Zekeriya Öz, police operations were carried out in 9 provinces and the former commander of the gendarmerie in Malatya, Major Mehmet Ülger and another 19 people were detained.
[28] At the end of June 2012, Turkish media reported that the indictment maintained that the murder was organized by a clandestine organization within the armed forces called the National Strategies and Operations Department of Turkey (TUSHAD), which was alleged to have been established in 1993 by Gen. Hurşit Tolon on instructions from Ergenekon, while Tolon was serving as secretary-general of the General Staff.
[29] In 2013 evidence emerged that the Malatya Gendarmerie had carried out detailed surveillance of the Zirve Publishing House prior to the murders.
[30] On 7 March 2014, five suspects who were still detained were released from their high-security prison and put under house arrest after a Turkish court ruled that their detention exceeded newly adopted legal limits.