Turkey (MNN) — In 2015 and 2016, extremists in Turkey planned attacks against three Christian leaders.

Bruce Allen with FMI says, “How did we find out about these attacks? And why has it taken so long? Who spilled the beans? Well, it was none other than the would-be perpetrator, a young man named Tolgahan.”

The plot

Intelligence agents and members of Turkey’s military approached Tolgahan. They asked him to name his price for killing three Protestant church leaders in Malatya Province.

At the time, Tolgahan led the Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist youth organization. The Grey Wolves have a connection to the current President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

But things didn’t go according to plan. Allen says, “Who was the person to whom Tolgahan confessed? It was one of the three targets, a church leader named Vedat Serin. Tolgahan just recently explained to Serin that even though he was at the right place at the right time to pull the trigger against his first target, he stopped abruptly because he spotted a young boy, the pastor’s son, playing piano in the church.”

“And Tolgahan did not want to kill the father in front of his son.” 

Praise God for the healing in Tolgahan’s life.

And ask God to strengthen Turkish Christians. It is unsettling to learn about the government actors involved in the plot. Allen says, “Christians across Turkey are asking national authorities to investigate the situation. The would-be perpetrator has given a lot of credible evidence to the local authorities.”

In 2007, five Christians from Malatya Province were killed during a Bible study. Allen says, “The perpetrators who carried out the murders had positioned themselves as if they were seekers or new followers of Jesus Christ. They infiltrated this Bible study and killed the others who were involved.”

The header photo shows a map of Turkey, highlighting Malatya Province. (Photo courtesy of TUBS, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons)