Story twist: Turkish hijackers could be Christians seeking political asylum

The latest development:

"Earlier reports on Tuesday that the hijackers were protesting Pope Benedict XVI's planned visit to Turkey were apparently incorrect; authorities now say that the hijackers have requested political asylum.

Turkish officials said one of the hijackers, identified as Hasan Ekinci, wrote a letter to the pope in August asking for help in avoiding service in the Turkish army.

"I am a Christian and don't want to serve a Muslim army," he wrote, adding that he had been attending church since 1998." [More...]

More:

NTV reported, without citing a source, that Ekinci was a convert to Christianity and a conscientious objector who had written in late August to Benedict XVI, seeking his help to avoid military service in Turkey.

“Dear pope, I am a Christian and I do not want to serve in a Muslim army,” NTV quoted Ekinci’s letter as saying.

Quite an interesting development. I wonder if the Pope or Vatican will comment?

This twist could explain why the hijackers have been so "civil" throughout the day's events. This article from the AFP seems to have some unique information:

Istanbul vice governor Vedat Muftuoglu said the hijackers, described as unaggressive, took control of the plane some 15 to 20 minutes after it took off from the Albanian capital Tirana.

“They said their action was to protest the pope’s visit,” Muftuoglu told CNN-Turk television.

However Turkish Transport Minister Binali Yildirim told NTV that the hijackers were seeking political asylum and there are no indications that they were protesting against the pope’s planned visit to Turkey.

“The information concerning the pope was not confirmed. ... According to the information we just received these persons are seeking political asylum and have said so to the (Italian) police,” Yildirim said.

Officials identified one of the hijackers as Hakan Ekinci and the other only by his first name, Mahmut.

Kasia has a good comment to add:

hate to say this, but...

...this having been done by Christians seeking asylum, while still wrong, presents an interesting contrast to Muslim hijackings. After all, no one was harmed and the plane was not flown into a building...

I agree that the relative non-violence of the hijacking struck me as odd when reading the initial reports. Perhaps that should have been a clue that this wasn't your "ordinary" radical violent Muslim hijacking.

Actually, some of the reports I've been reading even seemed to suggest that the hijackers won the sympathy of the passangers who were on the jet at the time, but time will tell on that one.