One of the two men who killed a man during an armed attack at the Italian St. Mary’s Church in Sariyer, Istanbul, has been arrested today. It happened during the traditional Sunday mass, around 11:40 local time (9:40 in Italy). Two masked people, with their faces covered by balaclavas, broke into the church and began firing automatic weapons into the air. Then a man ran towards them screaming and was run over: he is a Turkish national and was identified with the initials CT. Three different prosecutors were appointed to carry out the investigation and exhaustive checks were immediately carried out on all major arteries of Istanbul to search for the attackers. Some Turkish officials said the attack was not aimed specifically at the Catholic Church, but at “one person.” Sources close to the local Christian community raise the hypothesis: “We have attracted too much attention from someone or perhaps there are those who do not want us there, in that area, there is something strange in that neighborhood that we do not want.” “I understand, a hostile climate that we believe has to do with the presence of many ultranationalists from the Trabzon area, where Don Andrea Santoro was murdered.” President Erdogan assures that “the necessary measures” have been taken to “capture the culprits as soon as possible.”
The execution hypothesis.
According to some sources, the dynamics of what happened suggest more of an execution than an attack. Aside from the victim, there are no injuries and the two killers appear to be aiming for a specific target. Furthermore, the images of the two attackers do not provide clues about a possible religious origin behind the criminal action. At the moment the victim has been identified only as CT and the Turkish authorities have maintained maximum confidentiality in this regard, who have not provided further details. “In Turkey the news about ‘the attack’ has already been stopped, just a few hours after the attack they have banned talking about it,” they say.Drive Sources close to the Turkish Christian community. “Several ministers, including the Minister of Religions and the Interior, and the prefect rushed to the church – say the sources – but then prohibited the dissemination of news about it.” As for the church, “it is a place frequented by the Christian community, not only Italian but also European. For example, the Polish consul was also present at the time of the ambush with his little ones; it is a point of reference for the Community European, many Christians go there. The victim had been seeing her for a few months, they told us that he was not a businessman, it seems that he had some kind of disability.
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Ankara’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya wrote strongly about this cowardly attack.”
International reactions
During the Angelus, Pope Francis expressed his closeness to the community of the church of Santa María a Sariyer. “Condolences” also from Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who I am sure the Turkish authorities will arrest those responsible.” Similar tones from the Council of Europe: “Attacking a place of worship is unacceptable,” said the secretary general of the international organization, Marija Pejcinovic Buric, directing her thoughts “to the victims and their families, as well as to the Turkish authorities addressing the situation.”
Vicar of Istanbul: “Religious intolerance”
“The specific reasons are not known, they still need to be verified, but the elements that seem to emerge so far suggest an attack for religious reasons, a motivation of religious intolerance,” he said. Vatican News Monsignor Massimiliano Palinuro, apostolic vicar of Istanbul, explained that during the mass “two armed people entered firing numerous shots into the air.” Then there was “the reaction of one of the faithful, who also had some mental health problems, so he had the courage to protest against this attitude: probably they responded to this act by killing this person.”