One dead as gunmen open fire in Istanbul Catholic church
Turkish officials from across the political spectrum have condemned an armed attack on a church in Istanbul yesterday that left one person dead.
Authorities are hunting for two masked gunmen who burst into the Santa Maria Catholic church in the Sariyer district during a service and opened fire on worshippers. Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya condemned the “vile” attack.
The victim was identified by the initials “CT”. Several other people were injured, officials said. The suspects fled the scene on foot, Turkish media reported.
“Any attack on a single human being, let alone our Christian citizens, is treason,” Cemal Enginyurt, an Istanbul MP from the opposition Democrat Party, told The National.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.
Pope Francis expressed his support for the victims during his address at the Vatican yesterday. “I express my closeness to the community of the Santa Maria Draperis Church in Istanbul,” the pontiff said.
Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani also condemned the attack and said Rome was following up with its diplomatic representations in Turkey.
The UK government updated its travel advice following the incident, instructing British nationals in the area to “remain vigilant”.
“We will never allow those who try to destroy our unity and peace by attacking the religious places of our city,” said Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
Murat Kurum, an Istanbul politician from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), said: “These vile attacks, which target our centuries-old law of brotherhood and our will to live together, will never reach their target.”
AKP spokesman Omer Celik said security forces were “conducting a large-scale investigation into the matter”.
“Those who threaten the peace and security of our citizens will never achieve their goals,” he said.
Turkey’s broadcasting authority later imposed a reporting ban on the incident, a
common move by Ankara following terrorist attacks.
Opposition politicians criticised authorities’ response to the attack. There is “no accurate information about the deceased or injured”, Unal Cevikoz, a former Turkish diplomat and opposition party MP for Istanbul, told The National.
“This is not only pathetic but terrifying. A blackout like that creates suspicion and nobody can be sure about the validity of official statements,” he said.
Sariyer is an upmarket northern district of Istanbul, filled with Ottoman-era summer houses, pleasure boats floating in the harbour, and cafes fronting the Bosphorus strait.
Sariyer district mayor Sukru Genc described the incident as a “terrorist act”.
The attack comes as competition increases between Turkish political parties before local elections on March 31, in which district and provincial level leaders will be elected.
Istanbul’s mayorship will be fiercely contested, with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) hoping to regain control of Turkey’s largest city from the opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP).
Both incumbent mayor Ekrem Imamoglu and the
AKP’s candidate for the March elections Murat Kurum swiftly condemned the church attack, with Mr Kurum saying he had personally followed up with Santa Maria’s pastor.
In response to the attack, Turkish politicians will probably show both a tough stance on crime and possible acts of terrorism, while also wishing to show Turkey’s plurality and tolerance of religious diversity.
Authorities have faced criticism in recent years for increasingly conservative Islamist trends in the nation of 83 million people.
“Attacking places of worship and people worshipping is the lowest level of humanity,” Istanbul AKP MP Ozlem Zengin told The National.
“Those who committed this tragic incident will be held accountable before the law. In Turkey, people from all religions live side by side in peace and worship freely,” he said.
Sariyer was in Mr Cevikoz’s former constituency when he was a CHP MP, and the area’s non-Muslim community was “always very peaceful”, he said.
“I have been to the church several times during my election campaign in 2018 and used to know many people from the community.”
Turkey’s religious minorities are concentrated in Istanbul and other large cities.
There are no exact statistics but the latest US State Department report on religious freedoms in Turkey said there are about 100,000 Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Christians and 25,000 Roman Catholics in the country, as well as 25,000 Syrian Orthodox Christians, and about 16,000 Jews.
The attack comes as competition increases between Turkish political parties before local elections on March 31