Turkish Christians are shaken by last weekend’s terrorist attack on a Catholic church in Istanbul.
Claimed by ISIS, it comes amid threats that have already caused some believers to turn away from Sunday services. And like the rest of their nation, Christians are disoriented by details that escape easy explanation.
“Everyone is a little nervous and wondering about the future,” said Ali Kalkandelen, president of the Association of Protestant Churches (TeK). “And for the next few weeks, even months, everyone will be watching their backs. »
On Sunday morning, two masked gunmen went to mass at Santa Maria Catholic Church, fired into the air and killed one person. Security images then watch they left the building, with a little less casualness than when they entered.
In a statement released by Martin Kmetec, archbishop of Izmir and president of the Turkish Episcopal Conference, he expressed his community’s “shock” that an innocent person had been killed in a “sacred space of faith in God.” He demanded better security for churches, a curb on the culture of hatred and religious discrimination and that the truth be revealed.
Shortly after, security services arrested two foreign nationals, from Russia and Tajikistan. ISIS later published a statement claiming the attack was a response to his call to “target Jews and Christians everywhere.” That statement was followed by another from a group calling itself ISIS’s “Turkey Province,” which said it fired its pistols during unbelievers’ “polytheistic rituals.”
Although ISIS has carried out several terrorist attacks in Turkey, this is the first claimed by a local branch. The so-called province first came into existence in 2019, but had only produced one propaganda video.
But on January 4, ISIS’s spokesperson called for global targeting, which he then account to 110 attacks in 12 countries, killing or injuring at least 610 people. Turkey had already detained 2,086 suspected terrorists and 529 arrested since June 2023. Dozens more have been arrested following the Santa Maria attack, and 23 will be deported.
Kalkandelen said that amid the ongoing arrests, church attendance has declined. Families have kept their children at home, while new believers and seekers keep their distance. TeK’s statement expresses its condolences to the Catholic community, its trust in the authorities and a call to end provocative speeches.
“This terrorist attack is obviously not an isolated or abnormal act,” declared the Protestant association. “From now on, the dark power behind this must be fully exposed so that it can no longer…terrorize Christians, minorities, and anyone with common sense.” »
Condemning the attack, Istanbul’s mayor said the second referent was inaccurate.
“There are no minorities in this city or in this country, we are all true citizens. » declared Ekrem Imamoglu. He later added“We will never allow those who try to disrupt our unity and peace (to attack) places of faith in our city.”
A parliamentarian from Istanbul called attacks on Christian citizens are “treason.” President Recep Erdoğan personally called Anton Bulai, the parish priest. Flowers and candles were laid in the 19th century cathedral, with a Turkish flag draped over the door.
Turkey is class #50 on the Open Doors World Watch List of the 50 nations where it is hardest to be a Christian. It has 169,000 believers in the country, while the U.S. State Department estimates there are approximately 7,000 to 10,000 Protestants.
The Ecumenical Patriarch of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Bartholomew I, paid his respects at the church the day after the attack. Its community has recently grown with the influx of 100,000 Russians and Ukrainians following the war. But Turkey’s 25,000 Catholics have already experienced violence.
In 1981, a Turkish citizen attempted to assassinate Pope John Paul II. In 2006, a priest was kill in the town of Trazbon on the Black Sea. In 2010, a bishop was stabbed and beheaded. Located next to a fish market along the Bosphorus Strait, the Santa Maria Church, now making headlines, had suffered threats in 2011 for illuminating his cross, and in 2016 a crowd tried to break down his door.
More recently, since the war in Gaza, anti-Israeli graffiti has been sprayed on the walls of the Orthodox Church of Saint Mary of the Mongols in Istanbul and the Greek Orthodox College of Phanar. Most Turkish synagogues were farm amid widespread Turkish protests.
Kalkandelen said that in recent years, the Protestant community has witnessed only sporadic violence. Its most recent annual human rights report recorded just one incident of vandalism among its 186 national associations in 2022, alongside the stabbing of a pastor and the beating of the child of a pastor.
But for more than a decade, Turkish media have incited hostile attitudes toward the West. It has increased since the Israel-Hamas war, with Erdoğan defend Hamas as a legitimate resistance group. Popular sentiment connects Christians to America and Europe, Kalkandelen said, keeping the community tense.
“We almost expected something to happen in the country,” he said.
But what happened was strange.
“They killed one person, they could have killed more, but we don’t understand why,” said Soner Tufan, general director of Petra Media Group, a Turkish evangelical radio station. “One or more, from their point of view it doesn’t matter.”
His broadcasts urged Christians to remain calm, he added, and there were debates about whether there was a hidden plan to cause chaos in society. Prayer was recommended.
Local news reports offered mixed accounts of the victim. Identified as Tuncer Cihan, 52, images show armed men following him in the church. A parent said he was mentally ill and was not actually the target. His uncle said he was considering Christianity. It is reported that he had been attending the church since December, and Kalkandelen said Bulai, the Santa Maria priest, told him that Cihan was a believer but not yet baptized. But the district mayor declared that the clerk simply called him “a good person.”
Cihan was buried in an Alevi cemetery belonging to Turkey’s largest Muslim minority.
“We have two communities today united in pain” declared a priest from Istanbul.
Such evidence could suggest an honor killing. But so does the mayor declared that Bulai told him that the terrorist’s gun had jammed during the attack. Perhaps more casualties were expected.
Sitting in the front row of Sunday mass, unharmed, were the Polish consul general and his family. Local reports declared that the attackers were driving a car from Poland more than a year ago but had never used it before. Additionally, the Santa Maria Church is known as Italian, administered by Franciscan friars. Giorgia Meloni, Italian Prime Minister visited Turkey, a week earlier.
“Maybe it was a political message,” Kalkandelen said.
Whatever the explanation, it is received worryingly by local Christians. The Istanbul priest said the community was in shock and would probably have to reassess its security posture.
But aware of the possibility, a local Catholic praised her priest as someone who helped everyone, regardless of race or religion.
“He wanted this church to be open to anyone who wanted to enter. » declared Layla Yedicam, “but that won’t be the case anymore, I don’t think.”
The church will reopen THURSDAY.
Kalkandelen encourages believers to continue going to church. He cited 2 Timothy 1:7:God has not given us a spirit of fear. Giving in would slow the growth of the Church, he said, and with the lack of testimony, seekers could turn their backs on Christ.
Whether the violence had religious or political intent, Kalkandelen believes it was primarily a spiritual attack.
“Satan will never stop attacking Christians,” he said. “Don’t let this become a stumbling block in our relationship with God. »
