Two masked attackers entered the Santa Maria church in Sarıyer, Istanbul, during the Sunday services on January 28th, 2024. Turkish officials have announced that one person was killed during the attacks. It wasn’t specified whether anyone else was hurt or what kinds of weapons were used during the assault, but later on, it was found that the two attackers opened fire on a civilian, who did not survive the attack. In his statement on platform X, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya verified the time of the attack as 11.40 a.m.
While speaking with the reporters, the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu, offered his condolences and showed support for religious minorities in the city. Even though İmamoğlu has said Türkiye is a primarily Muslim country, in one of his speeches he also stated that “There are no minorities in this city or this country. We are all actual citizens.”
During his remarks to the St. Peter’s Square public on Sunday, Pope Francis also addressed the attack: “I express my closeness to the community of (the church) in Istanbul, which during the Mass suffered an armed attack with one dead and some wounded,”. The Santa Maria Church is run by an Italian order of Franciscan friars. Antonia Tajani, Italy’s foreign minister, said his ministry was following the situation through the Italian embassy in Ankara and the consulate in Istanbul. He posted, “I express my condolences and firm condemnation for the vile attack on Santa Maria Church,” on X. He also noted, “I am certain that the Turkish authorities will arrest those responsible.” Along with that Minister Ali Yerlikaya stated that authorities have started working on catching the attackers and that an investigation has been started.
In line with Tajani’s and Yerlikaya’s words, the investigations that have been going on have yielded results. According to the Interior Ministry, the police has already raided 30 locations and arrested 47 people. It was specified late Sunday, after the attack, by the extremist group that the two masked assailants attacked a gathering of Christian infidels during their polytheistic ceremony. Just before midnight, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya announced that two men had been identified as the suspected attackers, possibly from the Islamic State movement, and had been taken into custody. It was later announced that one of them was from Russia and the other from Tajikistan.
The minister added, however, that the investigations didn’t stop there and that dozens of individuals were later taken into custody as well, all part of the IS (Islamic State). The claim of responsibility and photos of the attackers were posted on Aamaq, a news agency linked to the IS and is mostly the first point of publication for claims of responsibility for terrorist attacks in Western countries. The extremist group said it was “in response to calls by leaders of the Islamic State to attack Jews and Christians worldwide.”. It was described that the attack killed one person and wounded the other by the group although Turkish authorities declared no one was injured except the dead.
The man who was killed was named Tuncer Cihan. He was 52 of age and suffered from a slight mental disability. His relatives proclaimed he was never much involved in politics. His nephew quoted “He is my uncle. He only went there for a visit and came across the situation by chance. He was an innocent person and he was definitely an innocent victim. He was retired and was mildly mentally disabled. Over the last two months he came with me to the church every Sunday. He was loved by the community. He was killed unnecessarily and we are deeply sorry.”.
Nevertheless, investigators have doubts about whether this was a terrorist assault directly connected to the group or if the jihadist organization claimed responsibility for the incident. According to the government-run Anadolu Agency, 25 suspected IS members were arrested across Türkiye and accused of planning to attack churches and synagogues on January 3rd 2024. While the Islamic State has never historically attacked places of worship in Turkey, it has carried out a number of fatal operations there, including a bombing in Ankara in 2015 that ended 109 lives and a shooting in an Istanbul nightclub in 2017 that killed 39 people.
It was declared by Ali Yerlikaya “We will never tolerate those who try to disturb the peace of our country - terrorists, their collaborators, national and international criminal groups and those who target our unity and solidarity.” The Turkish government has taken this matter into their hands and affirmed that the investigation for finding who were under those masks still continue.
Works Cited
Euronews, Two masked assailants attack Roman Catholic church in Istanbul, Accessed 30 Jan. 2024
Euronews, Turkey arrests 47 alleged IS members over Istanbul church attack, Accessed 31 Jan. 2024
SüperHaber, Accessed 3 Feb. 2024