Two Masked Attackers Kill 1 in Shooting at Istanbul Church

Two masked attackers shot and killed one individual throughout a church service on Sunday in Istanbul, Turkish officers stated. The motive was not instantly clear.

The assault occurred round 11:40 a.m. on the Santa Maria church, an Italian Catholic church within the Sariyer district of Istanbul, the inside minister, Ali Yerlikaya, wrote on the social media platform X. Mr. Yerlikaya gave solely the sufferer’s initials, and stated that an investigation into the capturing was underway and that the authorities have been searching for the assailants.

“Such provocations will never be allowed in our country,” Akif Cagatay Kilic, a high adviser to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, wrote on X. “The perpetrators will be caught as soon as possible and held accountable before justice.”

The government-appointed governor of Istanbul, Davut Gul, stated in televised remarks on the scene that the sufferer was a 52-year-old Turkish citizen.

“Two masked assailants went in, shot at someone and that person was killed,” Mr. Gul stated.

According to The Associated Press, the sufferer’s nephew recognized him. The A.P. reported that the nephew stated the goal of the capturing was the church, not his uncle, who had “no connection to politics or (criminal) organizations.” He added that his uncle had been invited to attend the church “and was a victim of fate.”

Among the group on the church was the Polish consul in Istanbul, Witold Lesniak, along with his spouse and two of his kids.

“We will find the perpetrators sooner or later, maybe within 24 hours,” Mr. Erdogan stated in a telephone name to Mr. Lesniak and to the church’s priest, Anton Bulai, based on a video of the telephone name that was launched by the president’s director of communications.

Pope Francis expressed sympathy for the Santa Maria church neighborhood on Sunday, and Italy’s international minister, Antonio Tajani, acknowledged his “sorrow and firm condemnation” of the killing in a submit on X.

Istanbul’s mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, wrote on X, “We will never allow those who try to destroy our unity and peace by attacking the religious places of our city.”

The authorities didn’t present additional particulars concerning the assault or about whether or not the assailants have been suspected of hyperlinks to any terrorist group.

In latest a long time, Turkey, a predominantly Muslim nation with a secular state system, has skilled a number of assaults towards Christian communities, usually by the nationalist fringe.

In 2007, a outstanding Turkish Armenian journalist, a part of the small Christian neighborhood in Turkey, was shot useless as he left his workplace in central Istanbul. That identical 12 months, three evangelical staff of a publishing home have been discovered with their throats slit. In 2006, an Italian priest was shot to dying within the northeastern province of Trabzon, and in 2007, one other Italian priest was stabbed in Izmir.

Separately, the Islamic State has been linked to a number of assaults in Turkey in recent times, together with a bloodbath at a nightclub in Istanbul in 2017, when a lone gunman killed dozens of individuals throughout New Year’s celebrations.

Last month, Turkey arrested three folks suspected of belonging to the Islamic State terrorist group who, it stated, have been planning to assault church buildings, synagogues and the Iraqi Embassy within the nation, the state-run Anadolu news company reported. The news company stated that 29 different folks linked to the obvious plotters have been additionally arrested.