Paul Alkazraji's Blog - Posts Tagged "secularists"

A British writer has had a thriller published that draws on Turkey’s recent inner conflicts and his experiences of the Balkans since he left the UK to live and work in Albania in 2003.

Set in Turkey, Greece and Albania, the story is about a man’s attempt to publish a book, and whether he will make it against setbacks and a danger that is approaching him with deadly intentions. “It is set against a background of church persecution in Turkey, murders and other true events there, including news revelations about the ‘Ergenekon’: a secret cabal plotting to destabilise the country for their own political objectives,” he says.

Entitled ‘The Silencer’, it has scenes in Istanbul and also tells the story of how one young man sets out on a mission of vengeance, caught up in the conflicts between Turkey’s secularists, Islamists and ruling conservative government.

“I hope I’ve been able to evoke some of the atmospheres of each of the Balkan countries, and tell a knife-edge story that grips to the final pages,” he says.

The author, Paul Alkazraji, worked as a freelance journalist in the Nineties and wrote the biographies of Bristol Rovers ex-football hooligan, Dave Jeal, and of Bristol missionary Ian Loring ‘Christ and the Kalashnikov’, as well as travel articles for London’s ‘The Independent’. Since 2004, he has run a magazine for churches in Albania.

“Initially, I went to Albania as a reporter just before the Kosovo crisis,” he says. “I went back again to write an earlier book and met my future wife there. We returned together to live in Albania in 2003, and we both still serve there with the local church. You never can tell how a single trip can change the course of your life!”

The Silencer